


Faith in Fury

by batzulger



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Path of the Fury, The Stainless Steel Rat
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Crossover, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-26
Updated: 2015-04-26
Packaged: 2018-03-25 22:17:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 38,558
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3827002
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/batzulger/pseuds/batzulger
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Magic is dead and gone...Right? Right!? So what is Faith doing here?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Faith in Fury

**Author's Note:**

> BtVS Property Mutant Enemy  
> Alicia and her world Property David Weber  
> Jim DiGriz Property Harry Harrison

 

# Faith in Fury

 

by

batzulger

Downloaded From: <http://www.tthfanfic.org/Story-30755>

## 1\. Chapter One

_"Hello, Faith. If you're watching this tape, it can only mean one thing. I'm dead. And our noble campaign to bring order to the town of Sunnydale has failed, utterly and completely.  
  
On the other hand - heck, maybe we won! And right now I'm on some jumbo monitor in the Richard Wilkins museum, surrounded by a bunch of kids sitting "Indian style" and looking up at my face, filled with fear and wonder. Hi, kids!  
  
But the realist in me tends to doubt it. Now Faith. As I record this message, you're… sleeping. And the doctors tell me you might never wake up. I don't believe that. Sooner or later, you'll find the world has gone and changed on you.  
  
I wish I could make the world a better place for you to wake up in. But tough as it is to accept, we both have to understand that even my power to protect and watch over you has its limits. The hard pill to swallow here is: once I'm gone, your days are just plain numbered.   
  
Now, I know you're a smart and capable young woman in charge of her own life but the problem, Faith, is that there won't be a place in the world for you anymore. Right now, I bet you're feeling very much alone. But you're never alone. You'll always have me. And, you'll always have this...  
  
Go ahead, look in the envelope.  
  
Don't worry, it won't bite. That's my job.   
  
Surprise! You don't get these in any gumball machine. See, when you've been around as long as I have, you make friends, and some of them forge neat little gizmos like the one you're holding now. And here's the good news: I can get to you a place where that pesky blonde and her friends can't find you..."_  
  
So there I was no shit, standing in an electronics store watching what was effectively the Boss's last will and testament...Well shit. I had no doubts that B and crew would be baying like the hounds of hell once they found out I wasn't at the hospital anymore. She had almost finished me the last time...and now she had almost another year of training on top of that?..I was so fucked. I opened the box and found a small disc with a dial and a note...  
  
"Twist dial one full revolution. Place on ground. Walk through before dial finishes unwinding," I read aloud. Sounded simple enough. Twist... Set down..."Holy shit!" a door had opened in thin air! Looking through I saw a white blur. Here's where I had to walk through...Ah fuck it! The Boss always gave a shit about me. Only person who ever did. I stepped through.  
  


* * *

  
It was cold. Freezing cold and blowing snow and I was not dressed for it. Looking around I found I had stepped into a killing field. Big ass buffalo-looking things and humans. Mules and dogs too. It was obviously some kind of farm with all the outbuildings. The one thing that looked really weird, was some kind of plane or something parked off to one side. I saw a guy in some kind of light armor fastening his pants step out of the house. He had some kind of slung gun. I then heard a weeping sob carried by the wind. There was a gunshot and the sob stopped. I went prone behind one of the buffaloes.   
  
I'd heard sobs like that in Boston, when some chick got cornered in one of the not so good parts. This guy and whoever pulled the trigger were now on my dead men walking list. The guy I could see whistled and guys started coming out of the various buildings, most of them carrying shit. Home invasion I guess.   
  
"10, 11, 15, 18, 20," I counted to myself "At least 20, and all heavily armed...fuck." this was not going to be easy. I'm in no way a good guy, but in a situation like this even I'll come down on the side of the friggin' angels.  
  
"I'm calling the cargo flight in-ETA forty minutes!" the lead rapist waved his arm, and pointed at a space next to the plane. "Get it together for sorting!  
  
"What about Yu?" one of the other guys pointed at a guy in the same kind of uniform looks like one of the homeowners had gutted him like a fish. Old guy had sweet knife moves by the expression of surprise on Yu's face.  
  
"Make sure he's sanitized and leave him. The authorities'll be pleased somebody got at least one pirate. Why disappoint them?" the leader said after a second. then five more of these fucks appeared from beside an outbuilding. 25 against an unarmed Slayer. I clenched my hands to get the blood flowing. I needed a weapon. When they were working to stack up their loot I slipped out and headed for the house, any kind of knife would be good. Inside it was still warm and the air stunk of blood, shit, sweat, and sex. Hitting the kitchen I grabbed a chef's knife and a decent sized cleaver. There was a coat stand by the back door, and I grabbed a parka too, and a set of gloves.  
  
"What the fuc..." he the guy who came up from behind me did not get a chance to finish that statement. I caught him in the forehead right below his helmet with the cleaver and he dropped hard. Grabbing his survival knife and leaving his guns...they looked weird and I did not have the time to figure them out, I slid his body under a couch. 24 now.  
  
Heading upstairs, I glanced out the window and spotted a figure in white ducked down behind one of the plane's landing gear. They had a rifle. Oh yeah...  
  


* * *

  
I slipped onto the roof and saw the figure sprint across the snow. Into a side building. A second later they left, the sleeve was red now. 23. There was somebody coming up from the their back left, around the edge of the building. I threw the chef's knife, catching him in the eye socket and he went down. 22. The person in white looked up at me and raised their rifle. I raised my hands and pointed at one of the invaders pulling a sled full of furs. The person in white nodded, and went after them. 21.  
  
I slipped back inside and heard somebody moving around downstairs. I got to the top of the stairs in time to see an orange fireball, as the person in white shot a raider in the gut. 20. Automatic rifle fire started up from an adjoining room so I crashed through the wall and broke the bastard's neck. 19. The person in white went out the kitchen door and a second later I heard another shot from their rifle. 20 left.  
  
I saw the leader through the living room window heading for the cargo ramp one the plane and diving through it caught him just as his foot touched the metal. He went to draw his pistol and I crushed his throat with a spinning back fist before it cleared the holster. Two more booms, 17. Then another assault rifle burst and another boom, 16. And another, 15.  
  
The assault rifles concentrated fire so I circled wide and came in on a flank. With a combat knife in each hand against normal humans? 9. Then there was a massive explosion. I stumbled and ran over to the person in white. It was a woman with blonde hair and dark green eyes. She had been hit in the leg and the chest and blood was everywhere. I dragged her from the burning wreckage of the building then realized somewhere along the line I had been shot too..."Four more.." she gasped.  
  
"I got it."  
  
I found them holed up in workshop kind of building. I threw in a chunk of concrete. They thought it was a grenade and broke cover, after that it was easy. 0.  
  
I stumbled back over to the woman. I was graying out. I'd felt like this before when B gutted me. Bleeding out. At least I'd have company.  
  
"Yo, they're dead."  
  
"Thank...you...whoever you are..." her breath was coming slow and painful.  
  
"Faith, and don't mention it."  
  
"Alicia..."  
  
I coughed and spit out a glob of blood. It was getting harder to breath.  
  
"You too?" she gasped.  
  
I shrugged, "I've survived worse...but it was close. Good way to end it though. Doin' something right I mean."  
  
Her eyes closed, "No chance of rescue...not for a week or so."  
  
"Nice meeting ya anyway Ali."  
  
"You too Faith."  
  
She laughed softly and in a scary tone. Then her eyes snapped open, "Anything! Anything!" she screamed.  
  
Then everything went black.  
**  
**

* * *

## Chapter Two

I wasn't cold I wasn't warm I was nothing. It was dark and empty. Like when B had shanked me.  
  
"Dammit Boss," I thought, "You should demand a refund for that gizmo. Like this is a fucking safe place for me?"  
  
Then my hands and feet started stinging.  
  
"...e's coming around! Goddamit she's alive!"  
  
"Both of them? How?!"  
  
"Don't know, don't care! Get evac over here now!......." I faded out again.  
  


* * *

  
I woke up in a bed. At least I think it was a bed. It looked like something out of Star Trek with chrome and blinking lights. I carefully tried to move. No luck I was strapped down.  
  
"Multiple gunshots to the chest. All matching those assault rifles. Six ribs shattered, right lung perforated, left kidney damaged, large intestine shredded, heavy damage to the liver," a voice said in a slightly frenetic tone.  
  
"Yes yes I know that from the medical remote data. What's the big deal?"  
  
"It's all healing! She should have died from that much damage, but she didn't! The lung and liver have started to regrow, and the intestine. The kidney is still in bad shape, but there are signs of its regeneration as well! And the bones too! Patient X is recovering fully."  
  
"What about Miss DeVries?"  
  
"Intestine perforated in eleven places, spleen damaged beyond repair so we removed it, repaired massive penetrations of her liver and lungs as well, we managed to save her leg at least. The weirdest part about her, aside from the obvious, is she's fitted with some beyond state of the art augmentation. There' three separate neural receptors, not in parallel but feeding completely separate sub-systems, plus the most sophisticated set of sensory boosters I've ever seen, and some sort of neuro-tech webbing covering all her vital areas. It looks sort of like a like an incredibly miniaturized disrupter shield. Then there's her pharmacopoeia. It has at least three drugs I've never even heard of."  
  
"The obvious...By that I'm assuming you mean, 'Why in the hell aren't they dead?'."  
  
"Yes Captain."  
  
"Well, is she in surgery now?"  
  
"Waiting on you sir."  
  
"Let's see if her on-board systems can give us any clues," the pair left the room and I opened my eyes fully to look around. The whole room looked seriously high tech. Where the fuck was I?  
  
I tried the straps carefully; no good. The way my guts felt I wasn't exactly at the top of my game anyway. I closed my eyes then snapped them open again when there was an alarm blaring and a high pitched and agonized scream, "Retract!" After a few seconds the alarm stopped and there was yelling and running in the halls outside my room. Whatever just happened was mostly over and I was tired and needed to heal. I went back to sleep.  
  


* * *

  
"Why is she in here too?" a new voice.  
  
This is the most secure room we have in this hospital sir," that was that Captain...Okanami, I think? I had been drifting in and out of consciousness the last few days. Ali had been brought into my room yesterday and I had been faking being delirious and listening when I was conscious. Apparently I was on some planet that wasn't Earth, and I was assuming it was pretty damn far in the future. Well Boss, B and her crew are sure as shit not gonna find me! "When we got your call, I assumed that you wanted a close eye kept on both of them."  
  
"You assumed correctly. My apologies, this is...odd for me too. "You're lucky your man's still alive, Doctor."  
  
"I'm sure Commander Thompson will be delighted to hear that, Colonel McIlheny. It only took us an hour and a half to put his diaphragm back together," the doc did not sound happy. What the hell had happened in the surgery?  
  
"Better that than what she was going for. If she'd been conscious he'd never have known what hit him, you can put that on your credit balance."  
  
"What the hell is she? That wasn't her on the table, it was her goddamned augmentation processors running her!"  
  
"That's exactly what it was. There are escape and evasion and an anti-interrogation subroutine buried in her primary processor. You Navy types aren't supposed to have anything to do with someone like her."  
  
"Then she's one of yours?" Okanami sounded suspicious.  
  
"Close, but not quite. Our people often support her unit's operations, but she belongs, belonged, to the Imperial Cadre," Imperial!? Oh shit! Was Vader gonna come strolling through?  
  
"Dear God," Okanami said in a really small voice, like he was about to shit himself. "A drop commando?"  
  
"A drop commando. Sorry it took so long, but the Cadre doesn't exactly leave its data lying around. The pirates took out Mathison's data base when they blew the governor's compound, so I queried the Corps files. They don't have much data specific to her. I've downloaded the available specs on her hardware and gotten your medical types cleared for it, but it's limited, and the bio data's even thinner, mostly just her retinal and genetic patterns. All I can say for sure, is that this is Captain Alicia DeVries."  
  
"DeVries?! The Shallingsport DeVries?" Whoa! Straight from fear to absolute respect,  
  
"The very one."  
  
"She's not old enough," Okanami protested. "She can't be more than twenty-five, thirty years old!"  
  
"Twenty-nine. She was nineteen when they made the drop, youngest master sergeant in Cadre history. They went in with ninety-five people. Seven of them came back out, but they brought the hostages with them..." I faded out at that point.  
  


* * *

  
"Who and what...are you?" there was a voice in my head. I opened my eyes and saw at the moment, the room was empty except for Ali and me.  
  
"M'name's Faith and what are you doing in here?"  
  
"Interesting...I can speak to you also...there is a spirit in you. Did you know that? An old one, older than I in fact."  
  
"Yeah? I did know there was a spirit in me actually. It's called the Slayer. Who are you?"  
  
"One moment, my host stirs..."  
  
"Who? What's going on?" it was the blonde's voice in my head now.  
  
"Hey Ali! Don't talk out loud, just think," this place felt military and I was pretty sure it was wired for sound.  
  
"Huh? What? You're...Faith right?"  
  
"That's me, now don't talk out loud. Okay mysterious voice, start talking."  
  
"Have mortals forgotten us, indeed? Ah, how fickle you are! You may call me Tisiphone."  
  
"Tisiphone? Like the Fury?" I said.  
  
"Erinyes was our correct title, mine and my sisters. Later on we were called the Furies; Alecto, Megarea and myself. I am the last survivor."  
  
"Tisiphone.." I remember Diane talking about them once, "You were vengeance against murder right?"  
  
"I was."  
  
"I'm going insane...or maybe I already am," Ali had switched to denial mode. Yeah there's the sign of first exposure to how the world really works.  
  
"You ain't insane. Not any more than anybody ever is at least," I looked over at her and she looked back at me. Then she laid her hand on a palm plate and raised her bed so she was in a seated position.  
  
"Let's say I believe in you … Tisiphone. Where are you?" she asked.  
  
"She mentioned host and spirit earlier Ali. I think she's in your skull."  
  
"You mean, she's a parasite?"  
  
I shook my head, "Nah, it means you're a lot like me now. Mine isn't as chatty, but the Slayer is a lot more primitive."  
  
"You have a spirit in you?"  
  
"Sure do. Tisiphone is a lot easier t'talk to though."  
  
"So I'm not crazy?"  
  
"Rationality is an over-valued commodity, Little One. Madness has its place, yet it does make speech difficult, does it not? Your spirit Faith. It is that of a warrior?"  
  
"Yeah. Where I'm from, I was a demon hunter. The Slayer gave me an edge."  
  
"You are not from here and there is a dearth of demons in this realm."  
  
"I was plannin' on retirin' anyway."  
  
"Tisiphone," Ali asked, "Are you the reason I don't hurt more?"  
  
"Yes. You would not be a good host if you were dead from your injuries."  
  
"Yo Miss T! How can you talk t'me...bein' that you're in in Ali-girl there?"  
  
"I...I do not know. Perhaps the Slayer is assisting?"  
  
I shrugged, "Not like she came with a instruction book. There was a handbook I guess, but I never got t'see it. I got strength, senses, speed, healing and mad skills...and weird ass prophecy dreams sometimes. Telepathy is a new one though."  
  
"Your spirit was created to avenge. I am vengeance."  
  
"Same union huh? You giving Ali the same kinda stuff I got?"  
  
"My power has waned with the passing of my other selves, and I was ever more apt to wound than heal. Since I could not make her whole, I took you to a place where time has no business until the searchers came to find you. It drained much from me."  
  
"So you don't really know what y'can do anymore?"  
  
I could feel Miss T. nod.  
  
"Okay," Ali said firmly, "Tisiphone, you are here. I'm accepting that. Why?"  
  
"You asked for vengeance, and you shall have it. We will find your enemies, you and I, and destroy them," T sounded pleased at the thought.  
  
"Just the two of us? When the entire Empire can't? What makes you think we can do that?"  
  
"This," T said quietly. There was a feeling of absolute ferocity and rage erupting from Ali's mind. Sadness and hatred and anger. In a second though it faded. "You begin to see, Little One, yet that was but your anger; you have not yet tasted mine. I am rage, your rage, and my own, and all the rage that ever was or will be, and skilled in its use. We will find them. On that you have my word, which has never been broken. And when we find them, you will have the strength of my arm, which has never failed. If I am less than once I was, I remain more than you can imagine; you will have your vengeance."  
  
"And it's not two of you, it's three of us. They shot me up pretty good and killed a lot of innocent people. I'm no saint, but even I'm not that evil..."  
  
I stopped when a guy in scrubs came running through the door over to Ali's bed. Whatever T had done a few seconds ago had tripped some kinda monitor. He looked at the gauges and then at Ali and then at me.  
  
"You're awake! Both of you are awake!"  
  
"How long?" Ali asked out loud.  
  
"How long what?"  
  
"How long have we been here?"  
  
"Uh, you were brought in three days ago Captain DeVries. You and Miss..."  
  
"Lehane. But you can call me Faith."  
  
He checked her pulse, then mine, "Amazing..."  
  
"Can I see the duty doctor?" Ali asked.  
  
"Captain Okanami is on his way here right now, ma'am. In fact, I was waiting for him when...that is…"  
  
"When I had my seizure?" she filled in.  
  
"Exactly. We heard you start speaking, and he had asked that he be alerted when you regained consciousness. How are you feeling?"  
  
"Not bad actually."  
  
"And you Miss..." I gave him a dirty look, "Uh, Faith?"  
  
"Pretty much Five by five. Ribs are still a little sore."  
  
Okanami came rushing in, "I'm glad to see you both awake!"  
  
"And surprised as hell I bet. We should both be in potter's field," I thought to Ali and T. Ali smiled.  
  
"You're lucky to be alive," he continued, "but I'm afraid.."  
  
"I know. I know," she said sadly  
"Yes, well. I'm not very good at expressing my condolences, Captain. Never have been... a failing in a physician, I suppose, but if there's anything I can do, please tell me."  
  
"I will. I take it you've figured out I'm a Cadrewoman?"  
  
"Yes. It came as quite a surprise, but, yes, we figured it out. It leaves us with a bit of a problem, too, medically speaking."  
  
"I can imagine. I'm just glad you didn't hit any landmines."  
  
"Actually, we did. Nothing we couldn't handle and we've got partial specs on your augmentation. I don't anticipate any more problems before the Cadre med team gets here."  
  
"How bad?" Ali thought to me.  
  
"Fucked up some doc's chest pretty bad from what I heard."  
  
"Oh god...did I kill him?"  
  
"Not from what I can tell."  
  
"That's good at least." She spoke aloud, "Cadre med team? Coming here?"  
  
"Of course. I'm not competent to handle your case, Captain DeVries, so Admiral Gomez called them in. I understand there was a Cadre detachment at Alexandria and that they're en route aboard a Crown dispatch boat."  
  
"I see," Ali did not sound happy at all about that.  
  
"What's the deal Ali?" I thought.  
  
"I wanted some peace. I had gotten a commission, the Banner of Terra, and a twenty-year bonus from Shallingsport. I sent in my papers five years ago and took my retirement as land allotments. I wanted out."  
  
Okanami continued, "We really don't have a choice, I'm afraid. There are too many holes in the data we've got."  
  
"And in the meantime?" Ali asked.  
  
"In the meantime, I'm keeping you right where you are. We had to do a lot of repair work, as I'm sure you've already realized, and I want someone versed in Cadre augmentation to check it over. Are you experiencing any discomfort? I wouldn't want to get into any fancy meds, but I suppose we'd be fairly safe to try old-fashioned aspirin."  
  
"I'm fine at the moment."  
  
"Good." Okanami turned to face me, "Now who are you?"  
  
"Faith Lehane. Just call m'Faith. Thanks for patchin' me up Doc."  
  
"You're...welcome? To be honest I didn't have to do much patching though."  
  
"Yeah well," I had an inspiration, "Y'might not have the need t'know the hows and whys actually..." If this Cadre thing could keep the doc from asking too many questions of Ali, maybe going all Secret Squirrel would work for me too? At least until I could figure out how to get clear.  
  
"Oh? Who should I contact?"  
  
"Ah..They should be contactin' you actually. It's only been three days y'know."  
  
"Yes...I see. Is there anything special I should know about your care?"  
  
"Nah. You've done a great job. Thanks Doc. I mean it too," and I did.  
  
"Well let me get your vitals and then I'll let you get back to some more rest."  
  
"Thank you Captain," Ali said, "You're very kind. How bad am I?"  
  
"You've responded well to the surgery, and to the quick-heal. In the long term, you'll probably want to consider replacement for your spleen, but you're coming along very nicely for now. The bone damage to your leg was extreme, and the repairs there are going to need several weeks yet, but the for rest..." he waved it away. "You just need sleep and time. You," he pointed at me, "Need time for your ribs. How you could even move with those...amazing. Now both of you, get some sleep."  
  
"Touch him," I heard T say to Ali. Ali reached out and patted the Doc on the back of the hand.  
  
"Call me Alicia. I haven't been Captain DeVries in five years."  
  
The Doc looked briefly dazed then nodded, "Of course. Alicia...Faith good night."  
  
"Night."

* * *

## Chapter Three

After Okanami had left I looked over at Ali and thought, "Yo, before y'crash, can you answer a few questions for me?"  
  
"Sure...I can try at least."  
  
"Okay, first where and when am I? When I left where I was, it was Sunnydale California in the year 2000 AD."  
  
I heard her gasp. "AD? Anno Domini?!" she thought back.  
  
"Uh, yeah. Why?"  
  
"We haven't used that system...The current year is 1253 IR. That stands for Imperial Reign."  
  
"Your empire has lasted for over a thousand years? Damn...So I'm at least that far in the future. That's actually kinda cool."  
  
"As to where we are...I'm not really sure. My homestead was on Mathison's World. It's a frontier world and they have medical centers, but none with Fleet medical personnel."  
  
"So are there aliens out there?"  
  
"Xeno sapients? Oh yes. The Rishatha are lizard-like, matriarchal, and very aggressive and expansionist. We've got a better navy and tech, so they just sit and fume most of the time. Other intelligent races are out there too, but none we're in a cold war with except the Rish."  
  
"So what's this Cadre thing that you're part of?"  
  
"The Imperial Cadre is well...the Cadre isn't part of the regular armed forces, at all. Although we still come under the overall control of the Ministry of War, the Cadre answers directly to the Emperor, in his own person. We're sometimes called "the Emperor's Own," because we serve the Emperor as our own direct liege lord, but we're closely regulated, under the Constitution by a special Senate oversight committee. And we're locked in with other restrictions as well, especially numbers. The Cadre is the only imperial military organization whose total roster strength is perpetually restricted by constitutional amendment to a maximum of forty thousand. That's it. Only that many for the entire Empire, and the Empire has almost two thousand inhabited worlds."  
  
"So you're like the Green Berets from my time?"  
  
"Green Berets?"  
  
"Special Forces?"  
  
"Yes exactly! Our designation is the Drop Commandos."  
  
"An elite soldier much like the Spartans. I approve," T spoke up.  
  
I snickered.  
  
"I'm so glad I meet your high standards Tisiphone," Ali said snidely.  
  
"So are there any government groups that might have somebody like me?" I asked.  
  
"Maybe. Two thousand inhabited worlds remember? The empire has total population of over two trillion. The bureaucracy alone keeps close to a three quarters of a billion people employed."  
  
"Damn. So there might be an agency I could be workin' for. There isn't, but there could be."  
  
"It should keep them from asking too many questions for a while," Ali said.  
  
"A clever plan Slayer."  
  
"Thanks T."  
  


* * *

  
A few days later the door did that Star Trek whoosh and slid open. A dark haired woman about B's height walked in. She was wearing a uniform and walked weird. Like the she had to keep from jumping through the ceiling or something.  
  
"Tannis?" Ali looked other at her, "By god it is you!"  
  
"Really?" she turned her name tag up to look at it, "So it is. How you doing, Sarge?"  
  
"I'll 'Sarge' you!" Ali was grinning then it faded. "I expect, that you're about to tell me how I'm doing."  
  
"That's what medics do, Sarge."  
  
"So how am I?"  
  
"Not too bad. Matter of fact, Okanami and his people did a good job on the repairs, from your records. I may not even open you back up to take a personal look."  
  
"You always were a hungry-knifed little snot."  
  
"The human eye," this Tannis lady said, "is still the best diagnostic tool. You've got several million credits' worth of the Emperor's molycircs tucked away in there-only makes sense to be sure they're all connected more or less to the right places, don't you think?"  
  
"Yeah, sure."  
  
"So who's your roomie?" Tannis looked over at me.  
  
"Major Tannis Gateau, this is Agent Faith Lehane. She can't say which agency and she's waiting on contact from her higher ups. She pulled my ass out of the fire and got truly shot up in the process."  
  
"I saw your file Lehane. You should be dead...both of you should be actually."  
  
I shrugged, "Killing me is pretty damn hard. It's been tried by the best."  
  
"So Alley, The problem is, that most people haven't dropped right off Fleet scanners for a week..."  
  
What the fuck? "Yo T!"  
  
"I said I protected you."  
  
"You could've mentioned how long maybe?"  
  
"I made an error."  
  
I shook my head. Higher powers....  
  
Tannis was still going, "...and they don't have weird EEGs, either."  
  
"Weird EEG?" Ali sounded just as surprised as I felt.  
  
"Yep. 'Weird' is Captain Okanami's term, but I'm afraid it fits. He and his team didn't know what they had on their table till they twanged your escape package, but they had a good, clear EEG on you throughout. Spiked just like it's supposed to when you flattened that poor Commander Thompson.." Tannis paused. "They tell you about that?"  
  
"I asked, actually. I knew they'd hit something, and most of the medicos were too busy staying out of reach to get anything done. I've even apologized to him."  
  
"I'm sure he appreciated it. Nice clean hit, Sarge, just a tad low." She shrugged. "Anyway, there was the spike and all those other squiggles I recognize as lovable old you. But there was another whole pattern-almost like an overlay- wrapped around them."  
  
"Ah? How does that happen?"  
  
"Ah indeed. Almost looked like there were two of you. Mighty peculiar stuff, Sarge. You taking in boarders?"  
  
"Not funny, Tannis."  
  
"You're right. Sorry. But it was odd, Alley, and when you tie it in with all the other odd questions you've presented us with, it's enough to make the brass nervous. Especially when you start talking as if there were someone else living in your head. They don't want a schizoid drop commando running around, Sarge."  
  
"Not running around loose, you mean."  
  
"I suppose I do, but you can't really blame them, can you?"  
  
Ali sighed, "Guess not. Is that the real reason they've kept me isolated?"  
  
"In part, along with the fact that the two of you are probably both classified top secret. Of course, you really do need continued treatment. The incisions are all done, but they had to put a hunk of laminate into your femur, and about four centimeters of what they managed to save looked like a jigsaw puzzle with missing pieces. You know how quick-heal slows up on bone repair, and you ripped hell out of your muscle tissue, too."  
  
"I realize that. And I also know I could've been ambulatory in this thing..." she pointed at one of the braces "...weeks ago. Okanami's 'have to wait and see; we're not used to drop commandos' line is getting a bit worn. If he weren't such a sweet old bastard, I'd have started raising hell then."  
  
"Is that why you've been so tractable? I was afraid you must really be messed up."  
  
"Yeah." Okay, Tannis, let's get right down to it. Am I considered a dangerous lunatic?"  
  
"I wouldn't go so far as to say dangerous Sarge, but there are…concerns. I'm taking over from Captain Okanami as of sixteen hundred today, and we'll be running the whole battery of standard diagnostics, probably with a bit of psych monitoring cranked in. I'll be able to tell you more then."   
  
"You're not fooling me, you know," Ali said suspiciously.  
  
"Fooling?"  
  
"Whatever your tests show, they're going to figure I'm over the edge. Post-combat trauma and all that. Poor girl's probably been suppressing her grief, too, hasn't she? Hell, Tannis, it's a lot harder to prove someone's not loopy, and we both know it."  
  
"Well, yes,. You always liked it straight, so I'll level with you. Uncle Arthur came out with me, and he's going to want to debrief you in person, but then you and I are Soissons-bound. Sector General's got lots more equipment, so that's where the real tests come in. On the other hand, I have Uncle Arthur's personal guarantee that I'll be your physician of record, and you know I won't let them crap on you."  
  
"And if I don't want to go?"  
  
"Sorry, Sarge. You've been reactivated."  
  
"Oh, those bastards!"  
  
"I thought you'd gotten outta the service Ali," I thought, all puzzled and shit.  
  
"There's one fact most people don't know about the Cadre, I'm not really a civilian at all. You don't ever fully resign from the Cadre, you just go on inactive reserve status...until you die."  
  
"And who's Uncle Arthur?" I asked.  
  
"Brigadier General Sir Arthur Keita, the Commander of the Cadre and the most dangerous person I've ever met." she spoke aloud, "How long do you expect your tests to take after we hit Soissons?"  
  
"As long as they take. Don't make any plans for a month or two, minimum."  
  
"That long?" Ali sounded dismayed  
  
"Maybe longer. Look, Sarge, they want more than just a psych evaluation. They want answers, and you already told Okanami you don't know what happened or why you're alive. Okay, that means they're going to have to dig for them. I'm sorry, but that's the way it is," Tannis looked at me, "And I know the General has the clearance to ask any of the questions he feels are necessary."  
  
"Works for me. Y'think I don't want t'tell you? I just can't."  
  
"A mental block?" understanding flooded her face. "Okay. Thank you Agent Lehane. That does answer some questions."  
  
"Happy t'help."  
  
"Tannis, while they're looking around in my head, the scent's going to freeze solid."  
  
"Scent? You in vigilante mode, Sarge?"  
  
"Why not? Who's got a better right?"  
  
Tannis sighed "No one, I guess. But that's going to be a factor in their thinking, too, you know. They won't want you running around to do something outstandingly stupid."  
  
"Well, if I'm stuck, I'm stuck," Ali said resignedly. "And if I am, I'm glad I've got at least one friend in the enemy camp."  
  
"That's the spirit. I've got an appointment with Uncle Arthur in ten minutes, gotta go give him my own evaluation of your condition...but I'll check back when it's over. I may even have more news on your upcoming, um, itinerary."  
  
She left.  
  
"That was horseshit. And no way can I afford t'talk t'this Uncle of yours."  
  
"This will not do, Little One," T spoke up. "We cannot allow these friends of yours to stand in our way."  
  
"I know. I know! Tannis will do her best for me, but she's a stone wall where her medical responsibilities are concerned."  
  
"She'll think you're batshit crazy or hidin' something then?" I asked.  
  
"Of course she will. That psychobabbler was a load of manure, and let's face it, by her standards, I am nuts. And one thing the Cadre doesn't do is let out of control drop commandos run around loose. Terrible PR if they accidentally slaughter a few dozen innocent bystanders in a food-o-mat."  
  
"So. Well, Little One, in this instance I have little to offer. Once I might have spirited you out of anyone's power, but those days are gone, and friends are always harder to escape than enemies."  
  
"I can bust us out of here, but after that I got nothing."  
  
Ali looked at the straps holding me down, "You can get out of those?"  
  
"Now that m'ribs are healed? Oh yeah."  
  
"Okay. If they won't let me go, we'll just have to bust out. But not yet. Not till we get to Soissons, I think. Nowhere to hide if we tried it here, anyway."  
  
"Fine by me. You T?"  
  
"I can wait. You understand the situation best, Little One. I will be patient."

* * *

## Chapter Four

They had Ali and me in physical therapy. As if I really needed it to be honest, but it let me sell the idea I was just a fit normal woman..no superpowers here...except for my healing of course. We worked out separately, and we were able to find out that I could stay in contact with Ali and T for about 500 feet.   
  
The docs were really curious about how I had done my healing trick. I just shrugged and said, "Classified." They backed off quick. Ali had three computers and a on-board medical system built in. Apparently T hacked them cause she was bored, and now all the safeties that had been installed to keep Ali restrained and not fully go for combat were just gone.  
  
I was doing carefully monitored pull-ups and thinking about as many panic inducing things as I could to keep my pulse rate up, when I got a flash from Ali, "Going to see Uncle Arthur."  
  
"Your Boss is here? Now? Oh shit..."  
  
"Stay calm."  
  
"Easy for you t'say Ali. I'm on deck and I am so screwed."  
  
"Relax Slayer. I have almost completed my plan. Remember what we talked about for your prevarication."  
  
"Okay T. I'm takin' this on trust."  
  
"The lie will work. I pulled much of the information from hypotheses that your physicians had been making," T could read and influence human's minds if Ali touched them and we'd been using that to build up a plausible story.  
  
I had just finished my shower and was getting dressed when a couple of soldiers showed up.  
  
"Uh yeah?"  
  
"Someone would like to speak to you."  
  
"Oh? Cool. Let's go 'cause I wanna talk t'him too," they looked surprised at that. Trick I learned from B. Do the things they think you don't wanna do, enthusiastically and you throw them off balance. She may have been blonde and hated my guts at the end, but she knew her shit.  
  


* * *

  
I was led in to a conference room. Wherever Ali and T were now, they were outta range. At the other end was a guy built like a tank seated at the table, there was another guy here, short and neatly dressed in a blue and red uniform.  
  
"Yessir?" I asked politely.  
  
"Agent Faith Lehane?" he raised an eyebrow a fraction of an inch and his voice sounded like a rock crusher.  
  
"Faith is fine, General Keita."  
  
"You know who I am on sight?"  
  
"Y'know you're kinda recognizable sir, and in our line of work it helps t'know who the players are so no mistakes get made. Also it helps to know that you got clearance t'who and what I am. I'm not sure who this guy is though," I nodded at the other officer.  
  
"Inspector Ferhat Ben Belkassem, Intelligence Branch," Keita said. "You may speak freely in front of him. Now, who are you, what are you, and who do you work for...Faith?"  
  
"Me? I'm just a chick who ended up in the wrong place at the right time t'save Captain DeVries. What I am is easy, I'm an enhanced bio-weapon. Who I work for is a little trickier. I'm part of the El Greco Mercenary Consortium..."  
  
So there's this Terran Empire, but that's not all that humanity has. There's also this group of planets; rogue worlds. These are planets that bailed from the Empire after the war between the Terran Empire and those lizard chicks that Ali had talked about, the Rish. Most of them are small stuff. Then there's others like the Jung Association, that's a bunch of serious assholes, and then there was El Greco. These were a bunch of eggheads that had gotten caught during the war and turned all their genius into becoming the best damn soldiers in the galaxy. After the war they had kept their independence and now hired out as anti-pirate forces and shit. They were in some small ways, higher tech than the Empire...especially in biology.  
  
"Son of a bitch!" Keita did not sound pleased. "What the hell is an El Greco merc doing on Mathison's World?"  
  
"We had a guy who took something he shouldn't have, don't ask me what it was, above my pay grade," Ali had told me to use those exact words, "...and was planning on selling it t'the highest bidder. I was dropped off in a goddamn snow drift after we tracked him there. Yeah I know we shouldn't have gone there without lettin' your guys know, but these pirates are usin' your Fleet's kinda hardware."  
  
Ali had told me that the 'airplane' was actually a recently retired from service Fleet Assault Lander. Something called a Leopard Class.  
  
I saw Keita nod very faintly. He already knew that there was a Fleet tie-in. Inspector...that sounded like a cop. I looked over at Benny. He had the typical seen-it-all detective face. Intelligence huh? He was a spy hunter, I just knew it.  
  
"Do you know anything more?"  
  
I shook my head, "Sorry sir. They need t'know us, just as much as you and your guys do. Can you get a call t'the El Greco Consulate. I'd kinda like t'get home."  
  
"Why didn't you die out there?"  
  
"I've been fitted with something called 'Slayer'. Only works on women and only one out of every million or so has the potential t'use it. If I don't die straight up, I will heal. Also lets me survive cold and heat and shit."  
  
"A genemod?"  
  
"Pretty much sir. I just have it, I don't even have the need t'know exactly how it does what it does," I shrugged, "Keep's m'alive. All that really matters in the end right?"  
  
"Why shouldn't we just shoot you as a spy?"  
  
"Because I'm not an enemy? Have I done anything t'fuck with this place? Hell, even I got limits. If your guys hadn't shown up when they did I'd be dead now. It would be a bitch spyin' on anything but the morgue if that happened."  
  
"Yes...Captain DeVries."  
  
"What about her? I heard the name about Shallingsport. Never expected t'run into her in the middle of a fuckin' blizzard during a pirate attack though. Like I said, wrong place at the right time."  
  
"Your...modifications. They kept you alive. How did she survive?"  
  
"Y'don't know? Your Cadre have hot-shit implants, I thought that's why she's still alive."  
  
Keita looked thoughtful, "I see. Well then Faith, thank you for this conversation. One more quick question though."  
  
"Sure."  
  
"You don't sound or act like a soldier."  
  
"That's cause I'm not. Not really a spy either."  
  
"What are you?"  
  
"An assassin mostly. I kill shit. That's why they call it the Slayer."  
  
"Why are you being so free with the information?"  
  
"Y'got ways of gettin' it out me if I don't talk. Everything classified I know has been changed by now...'cept the fact that Slayer exists and y'would have figured that out sooner or later. I may not be educated, but I ain't stupid."  
  
"Thank you again."  
  
"No problem."  
  
The guards escorted me to a new private room.  
  
"Yo Ali! You in range?"  
  
"Faith! How'd it go?"  
  
"He doesn't exactly know what t' believe. Y'were right, El Greco threw him something wicked."  
  
"They're not allies, but they're sure as heck not enemies of the Empire."  
  
"And the explanation for your survival Slayer?"  
  
"He looked like he bought that even more."  
  
"I thought he would," T sounded smug.  
  
"Yeah yeah yeah. What's next?"  
  
"Well Tannis wants to spar with me and Uncle Arthur wants to know why I'm not dead."  
  
"Sparrin'? Cool. Wish I could join in."  
  
"Tannis would tear a normal human apart."  
  
"I ain't been normal for years."  
  
"That's the point."  
  
"Oh yeah..."  
  
"Anyway we leave for Soissons tomorrow. We'll be flying up to the transport early," Ali said.  
  
"Okay. Y'know, I'm actually lookin' forward t'that. I've never even ridden in a plane before."

* * *

## Chapter Five

I was reading the Imperial news feeds. I needed to know what kinda universe I had fallen into you know? From what I gathered, El Greco wasn't on the Imperial shit-list which was good and bad for me. Good because for the moment they just simply wouldn't shoot me. Bad because they might try to talk to them before I could get clear and that would be bad. The thing was communications like radio and shit don't really go faster than light. They had tricks that could let ships do it, so they had these things called message drones that were tiny (compared to a full size people carrying ship at least) computer controlled things that would load up a shit-ton of messages and take them where they needed to go. This was not cheap to do. I'm sure they would spend that kinda cash, they were the military after all. But there would be some bean-counter somewhere bitching and moaning about it and dragging their feet. I may not be smart and shit, but I actually do know people.  
  
The ship we had been loaded on was heading to a place called Soissons. Sort of a local capital I guess. They had a Fleet Base there which meant a helluva lot more security. T was confident though, that she would come up with something. Ali had been giving both of us a crash course in how the world and the Empire worked. Also shit like how doors, elevators, and phones worked.   
  
"Faith!"  
  
"Yeah Ali?"  
  
"Did you see a guy from Imperial Intelligence when you talked to Uncle Arthur?"  
  
"He ain't my uncle, but yeah...Ben somethin' or other. He smelled like a cop t'me. I kinda thought he was like a spy hunter. Makes sense with me in the picture."  
  
"Inspector Ferhat Ben Belkassem. He's not an intelligence officer. He's with the Operations Branch, O-Branch, of the Ministry of Justice. They're the special troubleshooters for counter-intelligence and the like. There aren't a lot of them."  
  
"He's James fuckin' Bond?! Damn Ali! I've definitely joined the wicked bigs now."  
  
"Whatever that means...Anyway, nobody knows he's O-Branch. Not even Uncle Arthur..except for you, me, and Tisiphone."  
  
"Why's he here? Me?"  
  
"I don't think so. Tisiphone has a theory..."  
  
"Treachery," T cut in. "The attack on the Little One's family. It seemed strange to have such gratuitous murder. I have much experience with raiders over history and the most successful ones bleed a little at a time from their victims so that they renew. This group was clever and prepared. I believe the Inspector realized this as well even if he doesn't understand it. He feels it. He is very intuitive. He told the Little One that he revealed his identity to her because it seemed like a good idea at the time. Intuition again."  
  
"Well I sure as shit know that prophecy is real. Is he a seer or something?"  
  
"I am not sure Slayer. I have not touched him to confirm or deny that supposition. I do suspect he may be more perceptive than the norm however."  
  
"Well magic still exists because we can still do what we do," I said thoughtfully. "Never were a lot of witches though, and with tech handlin' all the problems now, I'm bettin' even with all the humans runnin' around out here there still aren't many. No reason t'use magic, and everybody's a skeptic."  
  
"Well reasoned Slayer."  
  
"Thanks T...Something's been bothering me though. You had two sisters and a shit ton of gods. Where are they?"  
  
"I...I...don't know. My pantheon was driven by belief so when nobody believed in them anymore, they faded away. To where I have no idea. Vengeance is a constant however, and I stayed manifest but weak for centuries...unable to move or communicate. Then I found the Little One here with such a purity of purpose that she allowed me the form I am in now."  
  
I nodded even though they were in another room and couldn't see me, "Yeah I get that. And since magic is everywhere we can draw off it. It's just there ain't many that know how t'access it anymore."  
  
"My thoughts as well Slayer."  
  
"Well it's lunch time, guess I'd better scour up some food."  
  


* * *

  
We met in the ship's mess hall. Nobody got close to the mercenary and the cadrewoman. From what T and Ali were picking up, Keita wasn't sure if Ali had been turned or not, and all the doctors were trying to figure out how she had survived. With me, I was a foreign mercenary with some super-exotic tech, who had conveniently arrived at the scene of a massacre.  
  
I was eating when Ali tapped me on the shoulder and pointed. "We're here," she said out loud.  
  
The out sized view port showed a beautiful planet spinning in space. I had read there were only two billion people on Soissons and they were being really careful not to pollute it.  
  
"Damn that's pretty."  
  
Ali pointed again at the space stations orbiting, "Fleet Spacedock and Shipyard. They can repair and build superdreadnaughts here. See that? That's a battlecruiser. A Super-D is six to eight times larger in every dimension."  
  
"And what might that be Little One?" T asked. "To the left."  
  
I looked over and saw a much smaller ship being worked on. It had a fat ass and a slender front, and it was pretty good sized. Maybe 1500 feet long judging by the work pods that surrounded it.  
  
"Too big for a dispatch boat...right between a light and a heavy cruiser in size...too small for a Fleet transport. As if anybody would stick a battleship sized Fasset drive on a bulk carrier anyway. And there are 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6....that's a lot of weapon's hardpoints and hatches..." She gasped, "I'm not sure, but I think that's an alpha synth?"  
  
"A what?" I asked.  
  
"Indeed?" T sounded very interested "I did not think they could be so small."  
  
"Well, they only have a crew of one, and they're right on the frontier of technology. They're only possible because somebody finally developed a practical anti-matter power plant-not to mention the alpha synth AIs."  
  
"Explain t'the person that doesn't have a Fury that enjoys hackin' people or computers in her free time."  
  
"It's a Artificial Intelligence controlled combat vessel. You know how we have our links?"  
  
She tapped her temple. Ali had three ports which she could plug weapons and gear into. One on her temple, and one in each hand. Really Matrix actually.  
  
"Yeah?"  
  
"Well with a synth, the pilot plugs in and forms a gestalt mind with the AI."  
  
"Gestalt...kinda like you and T?"  
  
"Actually...yes. Anyway, about sixty percent of humans can use implants to do data retrieval and minor operation. About twenty percent of those can use synth links which are direct computer interface and control. And finally only ten percent of those can interface with a cyber-synth. About 1 out of 100 basically. Plus AI interfacing is dangerous and tricky. AI's can go insane so you don't get a lot of volunteers."  
  
"So the whole crew on that ship is one guy and a computer?" I asked.  
  
"Pretty much."  
  
"That is wicked cool."  
  
"Well alpha-synths are even trickier from what I understand, and you have to be a special kind of crazy to want to even try. The guys who built it say that they have an insanity proof AI, but to do that they had to make it self-aware."  
  
"Holy shit! HAL!?!" I then spent the rest of the approach explaining to Ali and T the plot to 2001.  
  
The doc came over to us. Tannis, Ali's friend. Ali had said she was a heavy-worlder from a planet that had 30% more gravity than Earth. She was B's height and moved like a fighter. Ali had also said everybody in the Cadre was a soldier first, even the medics and the docs.  
  
"All ashore that's going ashore!" she said with a smile that looked completely fake and shit and led us and a small casual security team to the hanger bay  
  


* * *

  
We had been on Soissons for three weeks. I was wondering why I hadn't been spotted yet.  
  
"They're waiting on the response from El Greco, Slayer," T cut in to my thoughts. Ali and I had been separated the whole time. I was basically in lock down while Ali was being interrogated...'In a nice way'...as she put it, on whether she had been turned and what she knew about me.  
  
"You can read m'mind?"  
  
"We have been 'talking' for a while. I can gain impressions at the very least."  
  
"Why hasn't the response arrived?"  
  
"Because the message never got sent," T sounded smug, "I intercepted it and garbled it before allowing it to be sent on one of their dispatch units."  
  
"That's slick T."  
  
"Thank you. Anyway we will be leaving soon. Say in the next ten minutes?" there was that smug tone again. I grinned.  
  
"Sounds like fun," I got up and got dressed, "Got a locked door here though."  
  
"Relax Slayer, I have this well in hand..."

* * *

## Chapter Six

"So what'd y'do T?"  
  
"I have placed commands in their computers Slayer. These shall reroute their sensors, deactivate the door security systems, and summon the floor nurse elsewhere, but I cannot control who we may meet along the way. Dealing with them will be yours and the Little One's responsibility."  
  
"I'm cool with bein' the muscle. Anything else I should know?"  
  
"I have made alterations in the identity materials that the Empire has on you and have arranged a substitute. If we get separated, make your way to El Greco and login at any public terminal. I will find you."  
  
"Okay I guess..." I was jogging down the hall as quietly as possible until I caught up to Ali.  
  
"Cadreman guarding the elevator. Come around this way," she thought at me. She was moving differently...Kinda slippery and floaty.   
  
"Y'feelin' okay?"  
  
"On the tick..." she thought back. She had mentioned it before. It was some kinda high-powered combat drug that her implants had. At that moment she turned the hallway corner and raced up to the guard, who obviously realized he was screwed and drew his pistol. The green beam hit Ali and did nothing. Ali was in hand to hand range now and took the guy apart in just a few hits.  
  
"I thought that would be harder?" I asked.  
  
"I'm on the tick, he wasn't. His combat augmentations were in stand-by mode."  
  
"Why don't you guys stay on this shit 24/7?"  
  
"Even we can only handle it for short periods of time, and the hangover is spectacular and gets worse the longer you're riding it."  
  
"Well, when you're on it, you're sure as shit wicked faster than me."  
  
"Interesting to know."  
  
I grabbed his gun belt and dropped pistol. Looking at it I had a decent idea on how to use. A few test shots and I'd be golden. I fired the first one at low setting. I felt that would keep him out cold for a few hours...long enough at least.  
  
"Into the car Slayer!" T thought loudly at me. I headed into the elevator, dragging the guard with me so nobody would trip over him, and Ali hit the button for some kind of sub-basement. The doors slid open revealing a parking garage.  
  
"Well damn," it had that cold concrete smell but no gas or oil stink. More like lightning.  
  
"All right where's this vehicle?" Ali asked.  
  
"Stall one-seven-four. To your right, Little One."  
  
We ran down the rows of parking spaces. A lot were empty and most of them didn't have wheels. It looked like the parking lot in Star Wars.  
  
"Very impressive," Ali stopped next to a really nasty and fast looking one.  
  
"Where we goin' T?"  
  
"Jefferson Field, Pad Alpha Six."  
  
"A shuttle pad? Just what are we up to here?"  
  
"We are leaving Soissons, Little One," T sounded like she was really fucking amused by her plan.  
  
Ali climbed in and I tossed the gunbelt in as well and was getting ready to join her when I heard the elevator ding and the sound of running feet.  
  
"T, get her clear, I'll use the back-up plan," I thought as I closed the hatch. "Ali go!"  
  
"Understood Slayer."  
  
"Why Faith?"  
  
"Cause they know you and don't know me or what I can really do. I can get out of places you can't! Now get movin'!"  
  
The car took off flying a couple a feet off the ground. I cracked my knuckles and stepped behind a support column. The sound of running feet got closer and I simply stuck my arm out and clotheslined the poor bastard. His feet kept going and his head stayed put. He had been really moving and his body rotated around my arm until he went pretty much horizontal. I even skidded back from the impact.  
  
He was on his feet in a flash and I saw he was moving like Ali was. Fuck, this was a Cadre dude with his augmentations up and running.  
  
"Hey there buddy," I said with a smile. "How's it hangin'?"  
  
"Not bad El Greco or is it Jung really?"  
  
"Y'wouldn't believe me if I told ya."  
  
"Where are your people taking the Captain?"  
  
"People? Y'have t'be fuckin' kidding right? Ali got cabin fever and decided t'go see the sights. It seems that she doesn't like the lockdown. I went along for the ride."  
  
"Lost her...at least I have you."  
  
"In your dreams buddy," I shrugged my shoulders back and heard a few pops as they loosened up. "Nobody gets me unless I want them to." I shook out my hands to get the blood flowing.  
  
"You actually think you can take me?"  
  
"Yeah I do."  
  
"Are you crazy?"  
  
"Comes with the job title...Y'just think you're hot-shit because of that fancy gear inside and all your training. I was created t'fight things that would give y'nightmares."  
  
I dropped into a lightly balanced stance, sure that I was blowing a shit-ton of smoke. He was definitely faster and I was sure he was better trained than me, and probably almost as tough with that built-in doctor he had to slow down pain and shit. I knew I was stronger, so the best I could do would be to lure him in and grapple. Once I got my hands on him, I was fairly sure I could take him down.  
  
He reached for his gun, but I had been expecting that and snap kicked it out of his hand. He had not been expecting that kind of speed from some chick that didn't have any implants. "That's kinda cheatin' y'know?"  
  
"How the fuck?" he recovered quick though and slithered in for a punch to the jaw. I took it and skidded back. Not bad. Only a little weaker than a fledgling vamp. He knew exactly how to hit though and that shot would have stunned somebody not me. I popped my neck and took up my stance again.  
  
I saw his eyes click. He was looking at me differently now. I figured he was gonna treat me as if I had the same gear he did. Not a bad idea actually and I was now blocking as he took off the brakes.   
  
He really was good and so damn fast. It was like fighting an overcaffeinated version of B, bute had the same blind spot most creatures have though. The inability to understand that Slayers are expected to fight things that outclass them in almost any way, and the usual way we do that is outlasting them. I survived a goddamn knife jammed through me by another Slayer. To take us down you have to kill us and make sure we're really fucking dead. Beating us up is doable, happens all the fucking time actually. Taking us out and keeping us out of the fight though? That's one of the toughest things in the world...any world.  
  
So he was hitting me and I was taking it. It hurt like hell, but I can honestly say I've been hurt worse. I didn't want him to get any reinforcements and I felt I had stalled him enough so I faked a screwed up block and caught his fist. Rolling up his arm, I slammed an elbow to his jaw and bashed his head against the pavement a few times till I could get him in a choke hold. He went out and I grabbed all his gear and was off and running.  
  


* * *

  
Once outside I was in a sci-fi city, fucking flying cars and everything. I started running, I needed to get well clear of the hospital and get different clothes than the coveralls and shoes I was wearing. Slayers can run really fast and we don't tire easily so the getting clear part was a cinch. As for the clothes part....This was a major city with a spaceport. I grew up in a major city with a seaport. This was a Capital, Boston was a Capital. Wherever there are ports and politicians there's crime, lots of crime. I needed to find the bad part of town, usually by the port.  
  
The spaceport was heavily fenced off and it seemed like crash vehicles were going nuts over there. Probably Ali and T. There were warehouses and bars just outside the fence though. I looked for a dive that had good security. Winos casually watching the front door. Maybe some cameras or a uncurtained window across the street. Places like the Irish Gangs used to run.  
  
The one I found was kinda off the beaten track. It had a guy leaning against the wall outside looking all casual and shit. Walking over I went to the door.  
  
"Where you heading girlie?"  
  
"Inside. I'm dry as shit."  
  
"Private club."  
  
"How do I join?" yeah this was the right kind of place.  
  
"Invitation only."  
  
I looked at the door. It had one of the palm scanners I saw at the hospital. I looked at the guy. He had palms.  
  
"What the fuck!" I grabbed him by the wrist and dragged his hand over the scanner. It clicked green and I let him go.  
  
"Thanks for the invitation," he swung at me and I ducked and gut punched him hard enough to make him puke. While he was bent over I walked inside.

* * *

## Chapter Seven

It was a dive alright. All the shiny high tech shit looked worn out and dull and the floor was sticky. There were twenty or so people in here. All of them shut up when they noticed me.  
  
"Miss," the bartender said finally, "This is a private club. You should probably take off."  
  
"Yeah yeah, that's what the pukin' guy outside said too actually. So...Who does a chick have t'beat the shit out of t'get a drink around here?"  
  
"Kurnan," a voice came from a back booth. "Throw the idiot out, and find out what happened to Milo."  
  
A six foot plus slab of meat that vaguely resembled a human got up and headed towards me. I widened my eyes as he approached and raised my hands in a pathetic pose to try to fend him off. He stopped and glared down at me, "Scared now? Good. Now beat it punk!"  
  
"Scared?" I pulled my hands to my sides. "Nahh, just messin' with ya..." I snapped kicked him in the shin. As he stumbled back I caught him with a right cross and then a rising uppercut from my left as his head snapped to the side. I pulled back my strength. I didn't want to kill the guy after all. He collapsed in a heap. "So can I get a drink now?"  
  
A couple more guys from his table started coming towards me, "You made a serious mistake girlie..."  
  
"Oh no! Whatever will I fuckin'do now?" I ducked the first guy's swing and elbowed him in the junk. As he was gasping I caught his buddy's wrist and guided his punch into the wall. I felt a couple of bones let go on the impact. "Ooo, I bet that hurts..." I shin kicked him, dropping him to one knee, before I made a half-turn and grabbing the back of his head, bulldogged his face into the floor.   
  
The first guy had recovered from the nut shot and was trying to give me the boot. I shoulder rolled out and kipped up. He looked killing mad; not like I hadn't seen that face before. Rolling my neck to loosen it, I went into a fancy footwork bit like I was channeling Floyd Mayweather and threw in some Ali Shuffle. He growled at me. Aww, how sweet. I blocked the kick with left thigh, caught his knife wielding hand and squeezed his fingers against the grip before stepping in close and snapping my head up under his chin. He yelled as he bit through his tongue and he dropped his knife from his heavily abused hand.  
  
Stepping back, I leg swept him and watched as he crashed to the floor.  
  
"...Fuck..." came from one of the drinkers.   
  
I walked towards the bar and dropped the Cadreman's gunbelt on the counter, "This pay for a whiskey?"  
  
He looked at it and then over to the corner booth. I saw the guy there nod. "Yes Miss."  
  
"See how easy that was?"  
  
"Where'd you get that?" the guy in the booth asked.  
  
"The guy who had it wasn't usin' it. I took it as a penalty for him annoying me."  
  
"You took down a Drop Commando?"  
  
I shrugged and took a sip of the whisky it was awful and delicious at the same time, "Sorry about your guys, but I was thirsty."  
  
"What are you?"  
  
"A freelancer. Nice place y'have here. Cozy."  
  
"I like i..."   
  
I saw the flicker of movement behind me reflected in a beer bottle. Spinning, I threw the shotglass and hit the gunman in the forehead, sending him sprawling, "Another please," I said as I turned casually back to the bartender.  
  
"Door sensors said you don't have any implants."  
  
"Don't need 'em."  
  
"Why are you here?"  
  
"Looking for work."  
  
He nodded, "This way and bring the bottle."  
  
He got up with a couple of hard men with him. I shrugged and took the bottle with me as I followed him.  
  
His bodyguards stood on either side of the desk.  
  
"What's your name girl?"  
  
"Does it really matter?"  
  
"No, but I have to call you something."  
  
"Buffy."  
  
He laughed, "That's funny."  
  
"Yeah who would expect somebody like Buffy...honestly."  
  
"Alright Buffy...how did you find me?"  
  
"Wasn't lookin' for  _you_  in particular. Just somebody like ya; smart, private, cautious. My old neighborhood was a lot like this part of Soissons and I looked for somebody that fit that description. People are people no matter how far y'go."  
  
"You work for the government?"  
  
I shook my head, "Not the Empire's...which is why I'm here. I kinda need t'get home."  
  
"And where's that?"  
  
"El Greco."  
  
"I see. You're a merc whose employer skipped out on them and left you holding the bag..."  
  
"Pretty much. I need papers t'get home and cash, and I'm willin' t'work for them."  
  
"What can you do? Besides beat the hell out of my men?"  
  
"That really is what I do best. Thing is, I can and have taken down Cadre. They're not unstoppable...just tough as hell."  
  
"And you don't have implants?"  
  
"You're wired in. Check out a hospital breakout about an hour ago...see if y'can get the real story. I'll wait," I sat down in one of his comfy chairs.  
  
"Alright...Buffy." He put on a headset and was soon in communication with somebody. After about half an hour he set the headset down, "Not just one but two?"  
  
"T'be fair, my associate got the other one."  
  
"You didn't kill them though?"  
  
"And have them howlin' for m'blood? Are you insane? Beatin' them is embarrassing, and they'll send out maybe one or two for me. If I had killed one of them though, the whole fuckin' Cadre would be on my ass. I'm good, but c'mon."  
  
He nodded, "And you're not afraid of one or two?"  
  
I shook my head, "I can probably take them. Biggest thing in m'favor is I don't go lookin' for them."  
  
"Smart. You mentioned an associate?"  
  
"Chick who was in the hospital with me, she said she was ex-Cadre. We broke out together and then went our separate ways. I think she caused the shit-fit at the port."  
  
"Ex-Cadre? What does that mean?"  
  
"No clue really. Just that they had her on full lockdown till one of the nurses got sloppy. I was on the same wing so..."  
  
"I see. Well Buffy, you need papers getting you to El Greco and some money."  
  
I nodded.  
  
"You have absolutely no desire to stick around Soissons so I will hang on to the majority of your pay until the contract work is done."  
  
"Fair enough. I do need a taste so I can get some real clothes and a place t'stay though."  
  
His turn to nod, "Reasonable," he reached into his desk and pulled out one of those credit chip things. "Anything you spend will be debited."  
  
"Sure. Thank you Mister?"  
  
"Lamp, Mordecai Lamp. Be here bright and early tomorrow. There's a residence hotel three blocks south and a thrift store that should still be open."  
  
"Thank y'Mister Lamp," I got up and walked out of the office.  
  
"What the hell is that?" one of Lamp's goons said as I shut the door. Go Slayer hearing.  
  
"That is an El Greco enhanced merc. I have a couple of jobs needing doing and if the individual involved does not want to stick around Soissons afterwards and is in no way a known associate of mine...well that is a useful thing isn't it? She wants to stay as low-profile as possible. She was absolutely right about pissing off the Cadre. General Keita is on planet according to my sources."  
  
"The fucking head of the Cadre?"  
  
"Yes apparently he was here to interrogate her. Anybody that's good enough to raise his interest and break out of a secure ward guarded by Cadre, is somebody I would be foolish not to make use of. But only for a couple of jobs."  
  
"And afterwards?"  
  
"I pay her and she goes on her way...Lucian, that woman is not the type you doublecross."

* * *

## Chapter Eight

Another cheap hotel. Doesn't matter where you go, they'll always be awful places. Stopping at the thrift store first, I was able to to get some clothes...nothing fancy you understand, pants and boots, and a couple of shirts. Didn't see any leather jackets sadly, but I was gonna to keep my eye out. I know the Empire had leather.  
  
The room was pretty clean and the bed had one of those ultrasonic sheet cleaners built in. That was good to see. I took off my boots and lay down. I had found an all-night diner or something like a diner and grabbed some calories. They still had burgers in the future. I don't know why, but that little thing made me feel a lot better. "Well shit...Buffy. What have y'got yerself int'this time?"  
  
When I had found Lamp's bar I had been looking for extra low-profile security; low crime nearby cause you never shit where you eat, not even graffiti or any future-shit kind of tagging; and vehicles parked outside that look plain and boring, but are in good shape. All those mean that the guy in charge is careful and patient, not flashy. Low-key was definitely what I wanted. I sighed, the rough part was what was coming next. I was gonna have to kill some people. I was pretty sure about that. Probably somebody low rent first, to make sure I wasn't an undercover. Then would come the real targets.  
  
Finch had been an accident, the Professor on purpose and I was definitely trying to kill Angel and then Buffy. Then at Ali's family farm I had killed a bunch of humans. The question was not if I could do it, but how was I gonna feel afterwards. In the hospital and the flight to Soissons I had had a lot of time to think about the year before B had taken me out. She had killed the Boss. Not that surprising as B was one of the biggest badasses I'd ever met. She may not look it, but she is a stone killer and if a human gets between her and someone she loves, they're dogmeat. Thinking back, the Boss didn't stand a fucking chance. If she was in the same situation I was now, how would she handle it? She was a moody bitch and a spoiled princess, could be ruthless and she had tried her damnedest to kill me...and now I was trying to avoid thinking about what I was gonna have to do. I needed a fucking cigarette bad.  
  


* * *

  
I opened my eyes and heard talking in the hall, looking at the clock built into the wall I saw it was right after dawn.  
  
"She in there?"  
  
"Yeah, the Boss wants to make sure she's at the office on time. Give her another twenty minutes then we go in and rouse her."  
  
I walked over to the door and opened it, "No need for the rousin'; Just gimme a few t'get cleaned up boys. C'mon in and sit down."  
  
I walked into the shower and stripped. This thing used concentrated sound, UV light, and this enzyme shit to clean with. Not as nice as a hot shower, but according to Ali it had been developed for space ships and saved a shit ton of water; Also it meant I didn't have to wait for my hair to dry. I pulled on my new to me clothes and walked back in. Sitting down on the bed I pulled my boots on.  
  
"What's your guys' names?" I asked, "I'm Buffy."  
  
"Lon," he was short and squat. Probably a heavy worlder like Ali's buddy the doc.  
  
"Blind Pete," he had a bunch of tech over his eyes.  
  
"Blind as in, if you didn't have that shit you couldn't see blind?"  
  
"That's the kind," he sounded amused by my question.  
  
"That fuckin' sucks."  
  
"I do have the advantage of not having to see Lon's face though."  
  
Lon laughed, "He's got that right, Buffy. I have to look at it when I shave and that's enough for me." He had massive scarring on his face and neck.  
  
"Fire?"  
  
"Industrial solvent. Job went bad and I got splashed."  
  
"Sorry t'hear that man."  
  
"I'm still breathing. You ready to go?"  
  
I nodded, "Let's see what the Boss wants me t'do."  
  


* * *

  
We went in through a building next to the bar and then entered what looked like a closet door in one of the apartments. Inside the wall slid back and there was a much stronger door tucked away behind it.  
  
"This is the door you'll use," Pete said as he showed me the keypad and gave me a slip of paper with a code. He then typed in something and the door slid open. We were in the back of the bar and after opening another door were in Lamp's office.  
  
"Good morning Buffy. Clothes make the woman I see."  
  
"Yessir. Mister Lamp, I'm a killer. Contrary t'popular belief, I'm no psycho though. You'll probably want me t'whack somebody t'day t'prove I ain't the law. Cool, I understand why. Just please don't ask me t'take out anybody that doesn't really deserve it. I'll do it, but I won't be happy about it."  
  
He leaned back in his chair and studied me. Lamp was a big guy, over six foot probably, and blocky. He had salt and pepper hair and wore a nice suit. His eyes were cold as fuck though. Like the Boss's...Mayor Wilkins's, eyes.  
  
"I see. Ethical...moral...capable of doing very unpleasant things, but taking no pleasure in them. Lucian, you see why I said what I did, now?"  
  
"Yes Mister Lamp."  
  
"Buffy, I can work with that. The targets I have in mind are very good and very well defended. One needs to be made very dead, one needs to be recovered, and the third...well he's a special case we'll come to in time. Take care of those three and we're fair....Oh yes," he closed his eyes for a second, "Stand against that wall would you?"  
  
Lon, Blind Pete, and I backed up; clearing the center of the room. Lucian picked up the chairs and moved them next us, then picked up a roll of plastic and spread it in front of the desk.  
  
"What'd they do?" I asked, cracking my knuckles.  
  
"Lied, cheated, and stole from me...then lied some more to get an associate blamed; a now permanently former associate sadly."  
  
"How quick you want it?"  
  
"Oh? Well now, an interesting question that. As efficiently as possible of course, but...let's allow him to say his piece first."  
  
"You're the boss," I leaned against the wall and closed my eyes.  
  
There was a knock on the door.  
  
"Come!"  
  
A guy entered. He was wearing a decent suit and looked pretty damn average. He saw the plastic and froze while the door slid shut behind him.  
  
"Mister Castroverde..." Lamp began, "I sadly believe we have matters to discuss."  
  
"Mister Lamp sir! What's goin' on?"  
  
"Julius...we found the bank accounts. You actually did an excellent job masking the data trails. That attention to detail is why I hired you in the first place you remember."  
  
"That was DeLargo not me. You saw the documents!"  
  
"Yes, poor Mister DeLargo who unfortunately did not realize that you had set up those accounts in his name...where is he anyway?"  
  
"He took a powder. I haven't seen him in months. It's like he vanished...and with you pissed at him I can understand why!"  
  
"Yes, he is...gone. Julius, I'm afraid to tell you that poor Martin is dead. I had him killed eight months ago. Based on the evidence you planted actually."  
  
"Oh? But I never heard a word about it?"  
  
"That was the point. I knew the accounts where the money had gone. I have other programmers and accountants besides you of course. Not as...creative, but far more reliable. They simply monitored the balances for a shift. When it occurred...well there was nobody else but you that could have accessed them. Martin certainly couldn't of course. Being dead makes it extremely difficult to withdraw any cash. Waiting eight months was an excellent idea. Not stripping them completely and fleeing Soissons was not. You could have made it off-planet and I probably wouldn't have pursued you. It would be mildly embarrassing, but I could absorb the loss easily. However, you decided to stay because you thought you could outsmart me. Me..." Lamp shook his head sadly. "I am very ashamed of myself. I thought you were a very smart man when I hired you...and in your field perhaps you are. In life however? You are one of the biggest fools it has ever been my sorrow to meet."  
  
I had opened my eyes a crack and watched this Castroverde guy get paler and paler as Lamp went on.  
  
"Your wife will be left alone. She had no part in this. Your mistress...Miss Bloom is it? I do believe she knew all about it, and will also pay for her crimes...I also believe she is the one that planted the idea. Yes I will be having much the same sort of chat with her as I am having with you."  
  
I saw Lucian nod at me. I nodded back lightly and moved quickly and quietly behind Castroverde. He felt me move behind him.  
  
"This is it then?"  
  
"It is Julius. If you hadn't manufactured a reason for me to order Martin's death...Well, you would probably still be dead, but Martin wouldn't," he looked up at me and I nodded.  
  
Grabbing his shoulder, I kicked out his knees. I felt the tendons pop and he dropped to the floor. Then I snapped his neck with a stomp. Stepping back I let Lucian, Lon, and Pete roll him up into a neat bundle. Then Lon and Pete carried the body out.  
  
"Neatly done."  
  
"I'd say thank you, but..." I replied.  
  
"Yes. I understand. We all have our own moral codes; that which allows us to be human and interact with other humans. Both yours and mine are deficient otherwise we could not perform the actions we just did. Yours is probably less deficient than mine however, as you certainly have lines you will not cross. I'm afraid, I am not so limited. I do however have a code of conduct which governs my actions, as if I became fully the monster I know I am capable of being; I would dead within a week. And it would probably be one of my own men that did it."  
  
"I've worked for a monster before. In some ways you remind me of him."  
  
"Is that good or bad?"  
  
"Up until the end he was like a father t'me. I'm not expecting that, just t'be treated fair and I'll do the same."  
  
"Excellent. Let's begin."

* * *

## Chapter Nine

I stepped out of the flying cab in front of a seriously fancy apartment building. I was dressed in all black mourning clothes including a veil. The dress was padded to hide my shape and make me look dumpy. There were small chemical heaters in it too to make sure it radiated properly, whatever the fuck that meant. All I knew is that it was to make it as hard as possible for the local law to figure out who or what I was.  
  


* * *

  
"This target has superb security. Backscatter, densometers and EM pickups. No weapons or implants, not even the Cadre's, could pass through undetected. You on the other hand..."  
  
"I'm all natural badass. Got it. Any of his guys got implants?"  
  
"Oh most certainly and they will be the best money can buy. Less capable than the Cadre's of course or the Special Recovery Teams...but for what is available it would be advised to assume that they may have it."  
  
"Why not turn some of his guys?"  
  
"Her guys, and I have tried. Sadly she has a kill switch on them as a term of employment. She dies, they die. She pays extremely well however."  
  
"What'd she do?"  
  
"To me? Absolutely nothing. However to another gentleman who is extremely well placed politically? She is an embarrassment and a threat even though she doesn't know it."  
  
"She's his bastard kid?"  
  
"Precisely. Miss Hillen was anonymously adopted out, became an escort, and discovered she had quite an aptitude for blackmail. Therefore her wealth and penchant for extreme security measures."  
  
"And she has major league paper on a powerful somebody...her dad, and she doesn't even know it? This is fucked up Mister Lamp."  
  
"It is indeed. That is neither here nor there though. Her father would respond favorably to a request of mine if his little angel ceased to walk this mortal coil. That is what concerns me."  
  
"Gotcha. So how bad is she?"  
  
"She has discovered capital charges on more than a few high-profile individuals and utilized them for profit instead of allowing them to be 'acquired' by law enforcement."  
  
"I bet she has a failsafe if somebody takes her out."  
  
"Of course she does. However she has nothing on the gentleman involved."  
  
"What about autopsy and crime scene? Won't they find the link?" I asked.  
  
"The evidence can be dealt with very easily."  
  
"Okay then. So, how do I get in?"  
  


* * *

  
Two days later nice and early in the morning with the sun just rising, I walked past the lobby front desk towards the private elevator. The guy at it humped up and headed my way, "Hey ma'am. That's private!"  
  
I swept the key fob that Lamp had given me over the pickup, and the doors slid open. I turned and faced him, "I know. Now sit your ass back down."  
  
He stopped in surprise as I stepped inside and started the elevator up to the penthouse.  
  
There were two guards waiting for me at the door.  
  
"Who are you and how'd you get in?"  
  
"This is about business numb-nuts. Your boss's private business," I pulled a memory chip out of my glove.  
  
"Scanners are showing she's clean," the other guy said. "No weapons or implants. It is a push-up bra though."  
  
"Damn, you guys are bored for the fun aren't ya?"  
  
The guy who took the chip laughed, "Just our scan guys. They don't get out much."  
  
"Sure as shit doesn't sound like it."  
  
Now both of them laughed, "This way ma'am."  
  
I walked through a what looked like a high tech metal detector.  
  
"No explosives or chems," the operator said.  
  
Soon I was standing in a seriously blinged out living room. Three exits plus the balcony, four guards, target was in a recliner wearing a headset.  
  
"So who are you?"  
  
"Willow Rosenberg."  
  
"Never heard of you. Kill her and get rid of the body."  
  
"She brought something for you ma'am," the guy with the chip walked forward.  
  
"Oh? Don't kill her yet," she slotted the chip into the side of her chair. "Where the hell did you get this?"  
  
"Great question ma'am. Can we talk price now?" she was looking at a picture of her original birth certificate. She had spent a lot of money and time to bury that when she was building her current ID.  
  
"Talk or die."  
  
"I'll give y'a taste then. From your dad's files."  
  
"What!?!" she was on her feet in a flash.  
  
"He had a message for ya too."  
  
"You've spoken to him?"  
  
"Sure. He hired me."  
  
"What's his name?"  
  
"First we discuss price."  
  
"Isn't he paying you?"  
  
"Not in cash. More in a favor...and well y'know...?"  
  
"How much?"  
  
"Yer life," I was moving as I said it heading away from her and towards the nearest guard who was standing beside one of the exits. I toppled a big cabinet looking thing on top of him and blocked the door at the same time. The other three started shooting before the crash had even stopped echoing. I slid under the gunfire to the next gunman. Right on schedule a little turret popped out of the ceiling and started tracking on me and right into the guy who's legs I had slid between. Grabbing the corpse I used it as a shield from the turret as I headed for the next guy; throwing a couch to block one of the other doors as I passed.  
  
"What the hell? She's got implants! How'd she get them through?!" Hillen was yelling at the top of her lungs as she ducked down behind a screen that emerged from the floor. I slung the corpse at the turret and the gunfire tracked in on it, as I front kicked the next guard in the hip, shattering his pelvis and sending him skidding across the floor. I dive rolled to one side behind Hillen's shield and the turret fire went screaming off the armor.  
  
As it paused briefly I reached over and grabbed the target and held her in front of me. The turret didn't fire. Neither did the guards that were starting to pour into the room. They couldn't afford to miss. Reaching behind me I slid the balcony doors open and spinning, threw Hillen over the edge as I dived to the opposite corner of the balcony. Heard her scream as she fell the eighty stories down. Then as it faded I clearly heard one of the stunned guards say, "Oh shit..."  
  
You might ask why I didn't just break her neck. From what Lamp had shown me about her targets and what they had done after she had found out about them, that would have been too easy a death.  
  
I waited another few seconds and stepped out over the bodies of the kill switched security. Pulling the chip out of the reader, I went to the emergency stairs and walked down ten flights to an apartment Lamp's guy had rented yesterday. Now I just had to wait.  
  


* * *

  
"Yes?" I answered the door in a nightgown.  
  
"Police ma'am. Has anybody tried to enter your apartment in the last few hours?"  
  
I shook my head, "Come on in and see for yourself if you want."  
  
"That's okay ma'am."  
  
"Hey what's going on?"  
  
"There was an incident upstairs. Don't worry we're on it."  
  
"Okay."  
  
They took off. I got dressed in a pair of coveralls that had been left for me and dissolved the mourner's clothes, the nightgown, and the padding in the tub. Once that was done I took the regular elevator down to the garage level and walked over to a service door. Opening it with a keyfob I slipped in and headed away through the sewers.  
  
Getting back to the bar I entered through the side door.   
  
"Afternoon Buffy."  
  
"Afternoon Lucian..can I see him?"  
  
"He's expecting you."  
  
I walked in.  
  
"Nicely done if a little excessive in some ways...Defenestration?"  
  
"I was inspired b'the view. So I expired her with it."  
  
"I see. That was the death. The message is next. Not right away. The target isn't in the city at the moment."  
  
"I am in kinda a hurry, but you're the boss."  
  
"It will happen as soon as possible Buffy. I too need this accomplished quickly. But to take it too quickly...well that leads to errors."  
  
"I got it."  
  
He tossed me a wad of bills, "Not an advance. A bonus you could say."  
  
"Thanks sir."  
  
I left and headed out to grab something to eat.

* * *

## Chapter Ten

"How much can we trust her sir?"  
  
"To keep her side of the deal? We can trust her. She doesn't want to be here a moment longer than necessary Lucian. I was wrong, she's not a mercenary. Not exactly. The rumors I've been picking up lead me to believe that Buffy is an operative for the El Greco corporate board. Apparently she was found on Mathison's World..."  
  
"That was a raider target."  
  
"Yes, and she was found with a retired Drop Commando. The same one she mentioned, Alicia DeVries."  
  
I heard Lucian inhale sharply from my position outside Lamp's office. His soundproofing was good, but my ears were better.  
  


* * *

  
I had spent the last week chilling. Picked some more and better clothes including a leather jacket and found a gym to work out in. The bonus money was enough so I could get some alone time in there without prying eyes and it felt good to actually stretch myself to my limits. I still felt awful inside though. The security guys Hillen had hired knew the risks and Hillen was kinda evil just for the kill switch, but they were still humans and I had still killed them. I'm going to hell.  
  
My mom was Irish-Catholic and I went to church a couple of times. Got baptised and everything. It's pretty obvious that not much stuck from the commandments and I think I busted every sin except sloth and greed. But like all Slayers, B included, I knew there were higher powers. We may not like them or trust them, but they do exist and when I die...there will be a reckoning. I am going to hell and I'll deserve it. The only thing I can do, is to make sure that I accomplish some good things with my life. Otherwise, I'm nothing more than a brute.  
  
I was outside the Soisson's Cathedral and found myself walking in and heading to the confessional booths. There was a rattling and the priest slid into the other side.  
  
"Forgive me Father, for I have sinned. It has been over fifteen hundred years since m'last confession..."  
  
"This is a serious rite miss...not a place for jokes."  
  
"No jokes Father. Let me tell y'a story. Y'may think I'm crazy, but I can give some proof and I'm gonna tell y'some stuff that's secret and other stuff it's really dangerous t'know. If y'want t'find another priest t'hear it, that's cool. Do ya?"  
  
"No miss, now I'm intrigued."  
  
"Okay then, it begins on Earth in 1980 CE in a town called Boston...actually it starts a lot longer ago, but the important part starts in '80..."  
  


* * *

  
The confession lasted all afternoon and I was parched at the end of it.  
  
"My daughter...that was all true?"  
  
"Yeah. See why I thought you'd think I was insane?"  
  
"We live in a universe that is full of miracles. Other intelligences than humanity. We can visit the stars on a whim, lives extended past the threescore and ten by double and triple. These are miracles of science and yet people still come to Church. They do so because they seek answers and hope about things that science cannot reveal...only faith can. "  
  
I smiled at that...only Faith can.  
  
"Your words describe wonder and terror. You have physically encountered and slain demons."  
  
"Does the Vatican here know about demons and sh...stuff?"  
  
"I have never seen any, except those that walk as men. Your current...employer would qualify."  
  
"I agree and he's why I'm here. Slayers like me are supposed t'protect humans. I went down that slippery slope a while ago and now I'm pretty sure there's no way t'climb back up it."  
  
"The fact that you did come here shows that you do have the potential for redemption. You know what is right and what is wrong, and you seek to redress your fall. Your ...associate? B, correct?"  
  
I nodded.  
  
"She probably wars inside herself as well. You were called to a brutal career by your description, under no choice or desire of your own. You were granted great power by some means that determined that you were the proper vessel to contain and utilize it. That means decided that you met the criteria of valor and dedication that would be necessary to succeed in a never ending and thankless task. Until you felt doubt, you performed admirably. Your greatest failing is your doubt. You did not believe you were worthy and provided a facade to fool not others but yourself...to mask those feelings. One can lie to oneself, but not to God. The deceit shall always reveal itself at the most inopportune moment.  
  
"The fact that you came here to confess, shows that the lie is fading and must be replaced with the truth. In confessing to me and through me to God you admitted to yourself the flaws that you see in your own character. Whether they are fact or fancy is unimportant. They are what you perceive as your failings."  
  
"Yeah I get that now," I did too. Talking tough when I was scared to death was something I leaned young. Never show weakness. Especially to myself.  
  
"So what are your future plans?"  
  
"Link up with my friend and help her get the ones that killed her family. They're also apparently tied in with the destruction of Elysium along with a hel...heck of a lot of colonies."  
  
"The nuclear strike? I see...In the immediate future however?"  
  
"Finish off m'deal...and not t'kill anybody that isn't tryin' t'kill me or somebody else. Hel...eck try not t'kill them either t'be honest."  
  
I saw his shadow nod, "A reasonable and admirable goal. It shall make your labors more difficult."  
  
"Yeah, but I gotta start somewhere. I know there's a Hell...lots of them actually. And I know there are higher powers that make us look like bugs...This redemption y'talked about, that's what I need t'do. It's the right thing t'do."  
  
"I think you are on the right path my daughter...make your absolution."  
  
"I hope I can remember the words, uh, God, I am sorry for having offended ya, and I hate my sins, because I'm scared of the loss of heaven, and goin' t'hell; but mostly because they piss you off, Who is the guy speaking for us. I swear, with your help, t'confess my sins, t'do penance, and t'make things right. Amen."  
  
The Father laughed, "Close enough. God the Father of mercies, through the death and resurrection of his Son has reconciled the world to himself and sent the Holy Spirit among us for the forgiveness of sins; through the ministry of the Church may God give you pardon and peace, and I absolve you from your sins in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit."  
  
"Amen," I breathed.  
  
"Amen indeed. Well now, you have given me the most memorable confession I ever expect to receive, my daughter. Do great works. I can see you have the drive."  
  
"Thanks Father. I don't know how long I can keep m'baser instincts in check, but this should help."  
  
"You don't have baser instincts. You have what all of us have. Choices."  
  
I got up and headed back to the bar.  
  


* * *

  
"The hero of Shallingsport?" Lucian said suddenly.  
  
"The same. Buffy and Captain DeVries, who was in custody for some unknown reason, were picked up together on Mathison's World and escaped together. The Captain has vanished, presumably off-planet while Buffy is trying to get off-planet. I would imagine they have a planned rendezvous."  
  
"So what do we do?"  
  
"Finish utilizing Buffy and then clean our hands of her forever. Manipulating something like this to any other result is very liable to get us all killed or simply bring us to the attention of the Ministry of Justice which is much the same thing. I am a powerful man in my corner of the Empire, I have nothing like the resources of the Imperial Government if they get curious. I am not Icarus and I know it. We use Buffy for these two jobs then we get her away from us as quickly as possible. We have stumbled into something much larger than I can easily comprehend. For the moment I have control of a top level enhanced government operative...Whose government I'm not precisely sure, but the amount of classified technology inside her implies a great deal of money and oversight. If she dies, she will be missed and there will be repercussions. Lucian, at this moment I am playing with fire."  
  
I took that as my cue to knock.  
  
"Come."  
  
"You wanted to see me sir?"

* * *

## Chapter Eleven

I'm a city girl. Woods annoy me. It's too damn quiet and there isn't any concrete; It's just not natural you know? When I was crossing the US to get to Sunnydale, I spent a lot of time crashing outdoors in parks and shit. Closest I've ever been to camping actually. Now I'm out after a target in the middle of a goddamn forest.  
  


* * *

  
"Edrag Ghent," Lamp was projecting the picture of a pretty buff looking dude on the wall. "Soissons only has a population of around two billion. It is also only 45% water covered. That means there is much wild land left in which a skilled individual can hide."  
  
"Such as Ghent I take it?" I looked at Lamp. "What did he do?"  
  
"He did nothing. However, I need him to answer a few questions."  
  
"A snatch not a kill then...Okay, where is he?"  
  
The projection changed and I was looking at aerial photos of godawful thick forest, "In the Gansett preserve. No ground vehicles allowed, but we can deliver you in and extract you by air."  
  
"How big an area?"  
  
"Over 2,500,000 square kilometers."  
  
"Damn. I'm good, but that sort of search job ain't my strongpoint...unless y'got an edge for me?"  
  
"I do. He has a strong point here. We picked it up from System Defense Survey runs that may not have been as officially sanctioned as their pilots believed...this was the information I was waiting for." A glowing pattern of dots appeared. "I believe he has set himself up as a self-sufficient independent state. As long as he doesn't bother anybody I'm sure the government would be happy enough to ignore his presence."  
  
"How many peeps he got in his crew?"  
  
"Around two hundred. All potentially well armed."  
  
"So sneak int'his house. Bag him and tag him and then get my ass t'the chopper...Well, workin' for ya is sure as shit not dull."  
  
"I'll take that as a compliment."  
  
"It was meant as one," I replied. He smiled slightly. "I'm gonna need some gear. Rope, some kind of night vision, GPS, industrial tape, a good combat knife, and some kinda camouflage clothing."  
  
"No other weapons?" Lucian asked as he jotted the stuff down.  
  
"If I need one I've screwed up. I'm thinking you want subtle on this? Like if I hit him at night, he's not noticed bein' gone till breakfast?"  
  
"Precisely," Lamp said. He sounded very pleased. "You understand then?"  
  
"Yeah, I just sound dumb. I didn't get much real schoolin', but I still learned shit."  
  
Lamp nodded, "I can tell. This and one more job and our deal is complete."  
  
"So what does he know?"  
  
"He knows the location of the last job and what they look like."  
  


* * *

  
I slid down the rope from the hovering skimmer and, passing through the branches, was on the ground in less than fifteen seconds after it it stopped and hovered. The skimmer was gone in sixteen. I pulled the beacon from my shoulder bag and planted it in the dirt. Pulling the remote I pressed the test key and got a tone back in my earpiece. All good. I had been dropped off about five miles from the glowing dots so I cracked my neck and started to run.   
  
The woods were cool and damp, not like a jungle, but something like I guess you'd find in Wisconsin or Minnesota. Only they'd never had any loggers or condo developers move through. There was some underbrush, but it wasn't that bad. I didn't see anything that looked like a pine tree or shit like that. Small needles sure, but they didn't look or smell the same. I was on a goddamn alien world as a bounty hunter working for Jabba the fucking Hutt. Me, a mouthy street kid from South Boston. This was some seriously weird-ass shit and it felt terrifying and wicked cool at the same time.  
  
It took me about twenty minutes to get to the edge of the perimeter according to the GPS unit I had been given. I turned it off so it wasn't transmitting or receiving and began to climb the closest tree. The trees were huge, maybe a hundred feet or so? And had bark that looked like alligator hide. Plenty of hand and footholds for somebody like me I climbed fifty feet up and looking around with the thermal monocular I was given, spotted somebody hanging out in a tree to my left. Keeping the trunk of this one between me and him I jumped to a closer tree to Ghent's camp. It took me about an hour to make my way through the perimeter, jumping from tree to tree like a goddamn ninja squirrel. The fact that nobody else could probably pull some shit like this, was why it worked. You just can't plan to defend against attacks you know are flat out impossible. I had figured they could spot large energy sources easy enough, like the ones used in a skimmer or one of their hover packs or suits of powered armor. But I just had the ones in the earpiece, the remote, the GPS, and the monocular; all powered by batteries like you would find in a hearing aid. Also not having a lot of metal on me probably helped a lot.  
  
So there I was. Eight stories up above a tent city dug in around the bases of these trees. Ghent was the boss, so he'd have the nicest place and probably good security. There weren't any real guards stationed around, but I saw one really big tent sandbagged around the edges. It also had a couple of heavy cables running from it. I traced the cables by eye and saw one of them ran up the tree I was on and hooked up to a satellite dish above me.   
  
"Guy needs his sports..." I muttered as I tested the cable's strength. It was secured every ten feet or so by big fuck-off staples and I was able to get some slack by pulling carefully. Using it as a climbing line I care descended down into the camp.  
  
At the bottom I was glad it was dark as hell. My Slayer enhanced vision still only gave me a gloomy view, so without tech or a flashlight a normal human would be seeing jack shit. There were some dim red guide lamps, but not a lot. They were probably trying to keep this place out of sight as much as possible and I knew from experience how well light can be picked up at night. I had spotted a guard with goggles hanging out near the front of the tent, so I went for the back. Pulling out my knife I carefully drilled through the weave to make a peephole. I could hear muffled snoring. Hitting this place at three in the morning was a no brainer, even the worst insomniacs are usually crashed by this time.  
  
Cautiously sawing with just the tip of the blade I made a vertical slit about three feet high, then cut about a foot to the side to make a door. I slipped inside and almost immediately tripped over a dog. I cold cocked the hound before it could even make a puzzled yelp and as I was in the middle of pratfalling. I landed pretty much soundlessly at least.  
  
"Smooth fuckin' moves Slayer..." I muttered as quietly as possible before tying up the dog and taping its muzzle shut. Then it was simply a matter of incapacitating everybody in the tent as quickly and as quietly as I could...including Ghent's two bodyguards. The first guy was dozing in his chair in the front room and I choked him out quick before taking down number two who had heard the slight scuffle and had decided to investigate. Then it was on to Ghent and his girl. They had a walled area for privacy and it muffled the punches very effectively. Then I left her behind while I carried the hogtied him out through the slit I had cut.  
  
Moving to the tree I climbed the cable back to my perch, Ghent slung over my shoulder. I left him on the branch while I tied a length of rope around his chest and under his armpits then tied the other end to my belt. After that it was ninja squirrel time. Once I was across I climbed higher and began to reel him up and in. I repeated this trick as I made my way through the perimeter and then somebody with night vision finally looked up.  
  


* * *

  
The first sign I had was the panicked gunshot that hit the tree next to my head.  
  
"Oh shit!" I slid around the tree to the far side and untied the rope from my belt while still hanging on to Ghent with my other hand. He woke up around then and started struggling.  
  
"Oh this is fuckin' wonderful... " I quickly tied off the rope around the closest branch and lowered Ghent down the fifty feet then I slid down the rope. Cutting the rope right before I hit him and catching him and landing from the twenty foot drop. He had the wind knocked out of him from the impact so he was quiet again letting me sling him over my shoulders in a fireman's carry and start running There were a lot of gunshots now. And I could hear bullets whistling by by head as I crashed through the undergrowth. Then I heard a skimmer start whining its takeoff. Goddamn I wasn't a bounty hunter! I was a goddamn Ewok! I powered up the remote one handed and triggered the beacon. The tone got louder when I was heading towards it and I ran like hell.  
  
"Halt!" I heard an amplified voice and saw a searchlight swinging around as the skimmer roared by overhead at about twenty feet. Damnit! I jinked to one side and took off at an angle towards a group of narrowly spaced trees...if I was an Ewok, then...I dropped Ghent and leaped at one of the trees as high as I could. When my feet touched it; I kicked off hard, up, and out and angled myself towards the nearest tree..rinse, repeat a few more times. I was now about thirty feet up and the skimmer was swinging around. This time I pushed hard, down and towards the skimmer. They had the canopy open so they could get a better view and I plowed into the driver, sending the skimmer into a dive. The other three occupants bailed when they started screaming towards the ground, and I grabbed the pilot and took off as well. There was a nasty crash as the flier smashed into the ground. I dropped the pilot, scooped up Ghent and started running again.  
  
The tone got louder and louder then I heard the secondary tone. I pulled the remote and pressed the other button. The beacon then sent a signal to the skimmer that had dropped me off or at least it was supposed to. Ghent was starting to struggle again. "Stop that or I'll drown y'like an unwanted kitten, dickhead!" and gave him a little thump to show him I wasn't screwing around.  
  
Now what sounded like a 4x4 was crashing through the brush. No ground vehicles my ass!  
  
I dropped Ghent again and went after the truck first. Rushing in and stabbing the front tires. The first one was easy, the second exploded with a hell of of a bang and damn near flipped the truck! Well, I guess it worked? Even though I was pretty sure I was deaf in the ear the earpiece wasn't in and I think I fractured my right wrist. As for my knife? I had no frigging clue where it had flown. Rushing back to where I had left Ghent, I scooped him up left handed and slung him back over my shoulder like a sack of rice.  
  
The tone was getting stronger and finally I was back at my drop off point. The double-vision had cleared and I could sorta hear again. My wrist still felt like hell though.  
  
"Asset, we are two minutes out."  
  
I pulled the remote and pressed the signal key twice, waited a couple of seconds then pressed it two more times. Message received and I had the guy. Fuck! Another skimmer was inbound. Looking around I saw a big ass branch. I was pretty low on tricks so it would have to do.  
  
I broke off a two foot long section and hefted it. Yeah, good enough. Then I waited for the skimmer to round the trees. I had to make a left handed throw thirty foot up and forty foot forward with a chunk of wood weighing about twenty pounds Yeah, I am that damn good.  
  
The branch went right into the skimmer's jet engine intake, and what happened next was pretty predictable and really fucking spectacular. The engine exploded out and away from the passenger area and shredded the wings. The skimmer became modern art or a brick and decided to land right frigging now. slamming into the ground at about fifty miles an jhour. I was just able to yank Ghent clear before the aircraft slid through where he had been lying.  
  
"That was too fuckin' close buddy," I told him. A few seconds later I saw a cable being dropped through the trees. I clipped Ghent on to it and then hung on to him with my right arm, trying not to use my right hand, while I pressed the 'send' button three times with my left as the remote was in my teeth. The cable started to get reeled in, and we were out of there!  
  
"You okay ma'am?" the guy running the hoist asked.  
  
"Wicked fine...you should see the other guys."

* * *

## Chapter Twelve

I was back at the gym. Lamp had been annoyed that it hadn't been a subtle as possible then shrugged. The contract was definitely completed and he said that he doubted any other single individual could have pulled it off. I finished my weights and restacked the plates, then picked up the camera and surveillance jammer and switched it off. Unlocking the door I smiled at the owner, "I'm done."  
  
"Thank you Miss B."  
  
I knew that Lamp knew I was stronger than a normal chick my size. I just didn't want him knowing exactly how much stronger. I started my run, shadowboxing as I went. A ground car started up and followed me. One of Lamp's I hoped. If not it was gonna get tricky in the next twenty minutes or so. I ran six miles and staggered to a stop, obviously worn out. The car stopped and a guy got out.  
  
"Buffy right?"  
  
"Yeah...I know you?" I was gasping for air.  
  
"Come with us."  
  
"Why?"  
  
"Because I said so."  
  
"Okay," I stood up and stumbled towards the car. He opened the back door and I saw a guy pointing a gun at me. I had the first guy in front of me before he could twitch. The guy inside pulled the trigger before he could stop himself and the guy I was holding began to convulse, stunner obviously. I threw him at the shooter then took off, "Better luck next time!" I thought 'Suckers' for a second then realized guys like that usually had back-up. I headed into the first store I saw and ran over to the clerk.  
  
"Yes Miss?"  
  
"I need your comm!" I threw some credits on the counter. He nodded and passed it over. I quick called the emergency number Lamp had given me.  
  
"Leave a message..."  
  
"Snatch team at Drill and Hauser. Two dudes plus a driver. Got away, but these guys probably have buddies," I hung up. "Back door?"  
  
"That way miss..." he pointed.  
  
"Thanks man! Take it easy," I smiled at him as I took off.  
  
I was out the back in a flash and looking up. If they had some kind of drone or some shit it would be good to know. I didn't see anything, but that sure as shit didn't mean there wasn't something there.  
  
I was on the run again...story of my fucking life.  
  


* * *

  
I got into the storm drains. Sending drones in here wouldn't be impossible, just more difficult, but at the closer ranges I had a hell of a lot better chance of spotting and evading them. Soissons City was on a river delta and on the storm side of the mountains. The drains were big and flushed out pretty regularly. They smelled a lot better than Sunnydale's, that's for sure.  
  
I headed up hill, away from the harbor, before I climbed back to the surface. I needed to do this last job quick and get the hell off this planet. Heh...get off this 'planet'. I was adapting.  
  
"Boss. B may have killed you, and she had damn good reasons for it, but that present you gave me? It's been pretty damn awesome. Thanks! Only bad part...no miniature golf as far as I can tell..."  
  
Yeah the Mayor may have been an evil murderous psycho...but I do think he gave a shit about me...only person who ever did.  
  
I headed back into town and caught a bus. Last thing you'd expect an 'elite soldier' to do I bet? Eventually I slipped through the side door of the bar.  
  
"Sir, my time is runnin' out here on Soissons."  
  
"Yes. An organization much like mine has found out about your existence. This was more than likely a 'recruiting' effort. Lucian, The file."  
  
His head goon turned on the wall screen, "Edrag Ghent. Before he took up a spartan existence in the backcountry he was a superb forger. He retired eighteen months ago and moved to the wilds. Apparently his last deal was exceptional profitable. I had heard rumors that he had sold his entire business to an off-worlder named John Murrell and after that nothing. Murrell was plying his trade, I was plying mine. Our paths never crossed...or so I thought. I discovered that a large portion of my treasury had been replaced with exceptionally good quality forgeries. As good as Ghent's, if not better. I found those that had performed the swap, but they knew nothing except where to make the exchange and have continued on with it under my orders."  
  
"And how would Ghent know?"  
  
"Because the machinery is large and heavy. If I knew where he had kept it I could most likely find where it had been moved to. Ghent told me quickly, and even better he had no desire to want to know why I asked."  
  
"So you wouldn't have t'kill him because he would know somebody beat ya..."  
  
"Exactly."  
  
"Y'gonna try t'kill me when I'm done?"  
  
Lamp shook his head, "When this business is over, I expect you shall never return to any worlds within 20 light years of Soissons. You have no ties to Imperial Law and I have no desire to operate in El Greco space. We can maintain a cease fire."  
  
"You're scared of me. T'be honest y'scare the crap out of me too."  
  
"Yes. I respect you enough to be afraid and I must say I'm flattered the reciprocal is true. Once this is done; one set of papers, a ticket and a supply of cash will be yours."  
  
"Okay then."  
  
"Sadly, Ghent met Mister Murrell face to face only once. Both sides preferred to keep their distance. In addition no one by that name ever cleared Soissons' s customs. So we have no picture."  
  
"What do you have?"  
  
"A description; 2 meters tall and massing about 80 kilos, green eyes, long blond hair in a pony tail, looks like a bodybuilder and wore an expensive suit. And we have an address. A moving and haulage firm was contracted to remove a large quantity of 'industrial' equipment from the address Ghent offered me to another in a light industrial section of town. Driving by, it appears that the business is closed, but there is a significant power drain at night. Creating the security codes is time and processing intensive so the computational array will require a considerable amount of electricity."  
  
"T'night then?"  
  
"Yes, and capture if possible. I would like to have a chat."  
  
"You're the boss." I headed back to my flop and packed up my few belongings. Whatever happened next, I was getting off this planet.  
  


* * *

  
I was in my normal casual clothes for this one. I had a knife, but I wasn't planning on using it.  
  
"You ready?" Lucian asked. He was in the back of this anonymous black van with me.  
  
"Hell yeah. Let's do it."  
  
He slid open the door, "Good hunting Buffy."  
  
"Back at'cha!" I smiled and slid into the darkness.  
  
Long wide one story building. No skylights, three loading doors, two people sized doors. I pulled out my crowbar and headed to one of the loading doors. When I was growing up I learned they never alarm them because the wind shakes them so easily, trucks slam into them, and they're generally a solid bitch to open from the outside when the inside is barred down. With Slayer muscle and a crowbar though...  
  
I jammed it into the edge between the wall and the door, and worked the crowbar in till I hit the edge of the track. Then I braced my feet and heaved. I felt several pings as idler wheels popped out of the track. Back in Boston the gangs used to use a come along or a car to pull off this trick. High tech is great, but sometimes going down to the metal is way to go.  
  
I shifted the crowbar down and heaved again. Some more wheels popped free. One more spot and I had enough room to wiggle inside. There was a loud roar from overhead vent fans and it was hot as hell in here. I saw racks of computers working away on the security numbers that had to be placed in each credit. The way Lamp had explained it to forge a simple credit is easy. To make one that you can actually pass and get away with is a hell of a lot harder. Especially since the Imperial bank assigns code numbers that can be checked by certified readers quickly and easily. You have to find numbers in the sequence that haven't been used and encrypt them properly. That's what Ghent had built.  
  
I slipped behind one of the racks . It looked like I was alone. Then I saw a light on in the office section. I headed that way and peeked around the edge of the half open door. There was a guy in his late forties working away on a computer and sighing a lot.   
  
What the hell?  
  
  
"John Murrell. Yer comin' with me."  
  
"Who? No, Mister Murrell isn't here."  
  
"Who are you then and show m'some ID!" I pulled my knife slightly.  
  
"Lustig..." he stammered as he stood up and pulled out his wallet. "Vic Lustig. I'm just a bookkeeper!" he looked terrified. He also looked like he was about to have a heart attack. With that gut I wouldn't be surprised if he did. He was only about 5' 10" and looked like he weighed 230 or so. Nasty greasy black combover, fat jowly face, watery blue eyes, thick glasses, cheap suit. "Who are you? A cop?"  
  
I laughed "Oh hell no...I'm just somebody that's lookin' for your boss..Mister Murrell. Where can I find him?"  
  
"He'll be here at dawn...he always is...To check the night's run you see?"  
  
"Cool. I'll wait."  
  
"Can I get back to work Miss?" he was reaching for the keyboard and I heard a faint click. I was diving towards him as the darts fired from the wall towards where I'd been standing.  
  
"Cadre...Ho fek..." he kinda whispered as he saw me move. He was dropping fast as hell through a hole in the floor at the time. I overshot him and spinning, dived down the hole, only to find a steel door lowering. I jammed my crowbar underneath it and slithered through before the whatever was lowering it crushed the half inch steel bar. Scrambling through a bare concrete tunnel I came to a ladder going up and saw a heavy metal panel starting to slide shut overhead. I jumped up and caught the edge of the panel then, bracing against the shaft wall, pried it back open. There was a bang and the smell of fried electronics and I squirmed through the gap just in time to see a skimmer starting to take off.  
  
"Oh hell no y'don't!" I charged and grabbed on to the undercarriage as he sped up and crashed through an obviously breakaway wall. Who was this idiot?  
  
I don't think he knew he had a passenger because he just hauled ass and didn't try any fancy moves to shake me off. Good for me?  
  
Eventually he landed outside a small farm house just outside the city. I dropped into a tree he was swinging over and watched as he climbed out then he started stripping off his clothes. Suit then a fake gut like a partial fat suit. He pulled out some contact lenses, and then threw them and the glasses into the skimmer as well. The combover was a wig thing and he had brown hair under it. He straightened up then still naked walked into the house. I dropped down out of the tree and ran over. I could hear him grabbing stuff and a zipper being closed I stepped inside. He had just finished pulling on his pants.  
  
"Yo."  
  
"Dio malbenita!" he grabbed a massive pistol off the table and pointed it at me.  
  
"Easy dude...I ain't here t'kill ya."  
  
"You're Cadre."  
  
"Ennh! Wrong on that slick. I'm a private contractor."  
  
"For Lamp?"  
  
I nodded, "He wants y'dead y'know."  
  
"And that's why you're here...to kill me."  
  
I shook my head, "Nah. I'm just here t'get y'to him."  
  
"What if I don't want to go?"  
  
"Then I'll ask nice," I cracked my knuckles.  
  
"And if I still don't want to go?"  
  
"Then I'll drag y'back by yer hair."  
  
He put the gun down, "At least you're honest. Judging by how fast you move I wouldn't have hit you."  
  
"Look, he really just doesn't want anybody t'figure out he got ripped off and he didn't grease the guy that did it."  
  
"Oh?" Lustig or whoever he was looked calculating, "Can you help me move a corpse?"  
  
"Say what?"  
  


* * *

  
"So sir, I managed t'get aboard his skimmer and we had a discussion which ended up with him crashing int'the side of a hill. I got off before that happened of course."  
  
"Lucian?"  
  
"Cops got genetic trace off the remains in the skimmer matching the trace we found in the counterfeiting facility. Also a lot of burned credits. We found more at the facility in the safe. About 90% of the losses total."  
  
"Well not exactly what was planned but an effective mission nonetheless. Here you go Buffy," he slid a fat folder over to me.  
  
"Margaret Zelle huh?" I said as I looked at my new ID.  
  
"It seemed appropriate. Your ship lifts in six hours."  
  
"Home t'El Greco then. Cool. Thank y'sir."  
  
"It has been profitable to both of us. Goodbye Buffy. We shall never meet again."  
  
"I understand sir," I picked up my bag and caught a cab to the spaceport. I managed to keep from laughing until I was there.  
  


* * *

  
"So y'always keep a body in a whatchacallit...stasis tube?"  
  
"Only when I need to make sure people think I'm dead," We had loaded the corpse into the skimmer along with a lot of fake money and now Lustig was programming the autopilot. "Going up against Lamp meant that would be a possibility."  
  
"So who was he?"  
  
Lustig shrugged, "No idea. I purchased him almost two years ago from a very helpful morgue attendant. I smeared plenty of his skin cells and hair follicles around the factory so people will be sure it's him."  
  
"And I bet he's been wiped from databases too?"  
  
"Of course, he snuck in to Soissons illegally obviously," Lustig said grinning. "Look whoever you are..."  
  
"Faith. M'name's Faith.  
  
"Faith...You could have killed me and you have killer's eyes. You didn't though."  
  
"Tryin' t'reform."  
  
"And working for Mordacai Lamp still..." he shrugged again. "Mind if I ask why?"  
  
"He can get me off world with as few problems as possible."  
  
"That he can. The only way I could get clear is if I killed Lamp or he thinks he killed me. Cold-blooded killing is just not my thing. I've killed in self-defence, I'll not deny that, but I still maintain an exaggerated respect for life in all forms. So therefore I let him win."  
  
He finished punching in the codes and the skimmer started warming up then took off. "Adiaŭ ro Murrell!" he waved as the skimmer sped up and was soon out of sight. "...Or at least let him think he won."  
  


* * *

  
I headed inside the terminal and cleared security easily. Then I was waiting in the lounge for the crawler to take me to my shuttle.  
  
"This seat taken?"  
  
I looked up and saw Lustig, "Yeah, I'm holding it for some guy."  
  
"He got a name?"  
  
"I don't know, does he?"  
  
"Yeah, it's Jim."  
  
"Guess it's yours then."  
  


* * *

## Chapter Thirteen

I unwrapped myself from around Jim and stretched, yawning. Hopping out of bed I started my calisthenics and then my katas. Halfway through, I heard a grumbling, so I looked over at the mound of blankets.  
  
"Mornin' sunshine."  
  
"I suppose," Jim yawned. He got out of bed and padded to the bathroom. Finishing up quick, he came back out and kissed me before starting his own stretching and practice.  
  


* * *

  
Jim DiGriz had born on a planet called Bit O'Heaven and was twenty eight years old, just under six foot tall, 170 pounds, brown hair and eyes, and had a calm handsome face. He was also a thief or as he put it, a rat living in the walls of polite society. I had told him that I was an agent whose organization had been destroyed and that though I had been born on Earth, I didn't consider myself an Imperial resident in the slightest...or an El Grecan or a Jungian or any other nationality really.  
  
"Yeah I get that," he said as he lit a thin cigar and offered me one. We had both finished our exercises, but we didn't have enough room to spar sadly, he looked like he really knew his shit. I took the smoke, I still hadn't been able to find any decent cigarettes in Imperial zones but these cigars were really good. "A person without a past or a country and not really sure what the future will bring...I may know that feeling pretty well actually."  
  
"Well I said I'd help a friend get revenge on the raiders that killed their family. That's why I'm headin' t'El Greco."  
  
Jim looked thoughtful, "I avoid the Ministry of Justice as much as possible and have never had a job which would bring me up against the Cadre. It sounds like both are after you though...I'm assuming you didn't tell Lamp you really weren't an El Greco merc?"  
  
"Oh hell no. I didn't tell you either, you just figured it out."  
  
"Yeah I did, didn't I?" he sounded slightly smug. I've met a lot of guys that have said they were smart and weren't...Jim on the other hand was legit brilliant. Unfortunately, he knew it. "Sorry, I'll humble down. The Cadre is going to expect you to head straight to El Greco. so what if we hang around in the Franconian Sector for awhile? They have to be selling their loot somewhere...I'd bet Wyvern actually. It's a rogue world with my kind of customs officials...corrupt and/or non-existent."  
  
"We?"  
  
"Yes 'we'. Or don't you want a hand?"  
  
"What kind of a cut are y'expectin'?"  
  
"Cut? Oh no. You had me cold on Soissons and you didn't kill me or deliver me to Lamp. Plus I don't like casual murderers in the slightest, and these raiders certainly count...Now that we know that the only thing on the other side of the sky is more sky, the idea of an afterlife has finally been slid into the history books. With heaven and hell gone we are faced with the necessity of making a heaven or hell right here. What with societies and technology and allied disciplines we have come a long way and life on the civilised worlds is better than it was during the black days of superstition. But with the improving of here and now comes the stark realisation that here and now is all we have. Each of us has only this one brief experience with the bright light of consciousness in that endless dark night of eternity and must make the most of it. Doing this means we must respect the existence of everyone else and the most criminal act imaginable is the terminating of one of these conscious existences."  
  
He took a sip of water.  
  
"War and soldiers are one thing. Killing for profit? It's a crime I will not commit."  
  
"I've done it..." I said softly.  
  
"How old are you? Eighteen? Nineteen?"  
  
"Nineteen..."  
  
Jim shook his head sadly, "And you've been trained as a killer since how old?"  
  
"I got m'skills a few years back."  
  
"As a teenager...This agency you worked for does not sound particularly nice."  
  
"The Council were a bunch of sons'a bitches. They also have no freakin' clue where I am now. What got done t'me...only works on young girls."  
  
"Your strength and speed?" I nodded.  
  
"I told m'self I'm not gonna be an assassin anymore. Hell, that I wouldn't even kill anymore unless people other than me were in danger. I was a street kid with no chance in life and I was Chosen t'do the shit I can do. T'be a protector and I sure as shit fucked that up, killed some people who didn't deserve t'die and wound up out here on the run."  
  
"Faith, I'm not holding it against you and I don't think my moral code would ever match up with what you had to do to survive. I became a thief because everything else was so damn boring. That's why I'm out on the frontier. The closer you get to Earth the more rigid and restrained everything is and the more eager they are to find the squarest and most perfect fitting hole to put a square shaped person in. We're different people with different backgrounds. I've had the luxury to develop my code. You had yours thrust upon you," he kissed me again. "You are who you are because of it, and now you are trying to be more."  
  
"Damn Jimbo, you'll fluster me."  
  
He laughed, "I sincerely doubt that will happen. And yes, I will go with you and help. I need a vacation from my life of crime anyway. Perhaps I can perform a good deed or two? Now I need a shower."  
  
"Good thing there's room f'r two in there."  
  
"Lucky that I was able to get us this suite," he said innocently.  
  
"Yeah...lucky," I snickered.  
  


* * *

  
The trip to Wyvern lasted about a month. We changed ships and identities a couple of times. Jim was an amazing forger and he spent a lot of time patiently showing me how to do that as well as how to pick locks and pockets. When we finally arrived I was Lady Ariadne Roth and Jim was my butler, Simmons. According to the rumors Jim had planted, I was either running away from an arranged marriage or looking for a husband. Either way; with blonde hair, blue eyes, and pale skin; I didn't look like me at all.  
  
We pulled up in a ground taxi outside the Wingrove Hotel. The finest one on Wyvern according to my partner.  
  
"Isn't this going t'..to bankrupt ya...you?"  
  
"Not hardly. Do you think I need all this money? I end up giving a lot of my hauls away."  
  
"So you do all this for fun?"  
  
"And to give the police and the press something to do. Light hearted human interest stories with no violence attached. Great industries fooled by a single individual..a mythology for the modern man."  
  
I rolled my eyes.  
  
"Oh Lady Ariadne, tell me that I am not disappointing you?"  
  
"No way. Jim thanks."  
  
"It's Simmons and don't mention it.  
  


* * *

  
That night I had red hair and a massive scar across the left side of my face; Jim looked heavier set and was now apparently bald. We were moving around the spaceport warehouses looking for loot.  
  
Ali's homestead was on Mathison's World which was also the home of a king sized snow lion called a direcat. Jim thought that Wyvern would be a perfect place to sell illegal direcat furs. As all the homesteaders hunted them for pelts, a large supply suddenly showing up would be interesting to say the least. Now we we were casing various transhippers who may have mentioned that there were pelts for sale.  
  
"Oscar Quintana..never dealt with him myself, "Jim said casually as we stumbled against each other. We were wearing worn ship utility coveralls. The unofficial uniform of pretty much all independent space crew. One of the warehouse guys who worked for this Quintana dude had mentioned to a new buddy over beers that a lot of pelts had showed up. As the new buddy was Jim, he simply bought another round for the guy and we left after he passed out.  
  
Grabbing a drain pipe I climbed up and glanced through the high windows. A second later Jim joined me. He talked me through how to run the alarm bypass and how to lever the window open without making too much noise, then we were inside.  
  
I dropped the twenty feet to the floor silently while Jim climbed down. Now I was looking through the crates and racks while Jim was working on an inventory terminal.  
  
"Anything?" I asked.  
  
"According to their logs they shipped an order to Derwent two weeks ago. Over a thousand prime direcat furs."  
  
"Where'd they get them from?"  
  
Jim shook his head, "Just an account number sadly...but this account has sold a  _lot_  of high end goods for a substantially lower than market price over the past year or so."  
  
"So it is the raiders?"  
  
"I think so," Jim said with a nod. "We should have a chat with Ro Quintana in the near future."  
  
"I call dibs on the thumbscrews!"  
  


* * *

  
The next day we were wearing normal clothes and watching the man himself greet a shuttle that had just landed. Out of the shuttle stepped.."Ali?!" she shook Quintana's hand and then the pair entered a limousine and drove off.  
  
"Your friend I take it?" Jim asked.  
  
"Yeah. Hang on," I concentrated, "Ali! T!"  
  
"Faith?!" it was Ali. "What are you doing here?"   
  
"Tracking the raiders. Quintana's involved."  
  
"Got it. Followed the smuggling from Derwent. How did you figure it out?"  
  
"Not important. I'm at the Wingrove under the name Ariadne Roth."  
  
"I'll be in touch." The limo moved out of range and the contact slightly faded, then a voice that sounded kinda like Ali's entered my skull.  
  
"Who are you?"  
  
**a/n**  
  
Of course Jim is James Bolivar DiGriz, Harry Harrison's Stainless Steel Rat. No Special Corps, Angelina, James or Bolivar, Morality Police, Gray men or Time Travel came along with him however. Jim's rant about not killing came from The Revenge of the Stainless Steel Rat.

* * *

## Chapter Fourteen

"If yer in m'head, y'have t'be workin' with T and Ali."  
  
"You did not answer my question!"  
  
"I'm Faith, T usually calls me Slayer."  
  
"You assisted their escape from Soissons?"  
  
"Yeah, it was kinda mutual assistin' though. Who are you?"  
  
"I am called Megaera."  
  
"You're T's sister right? The Fury of jealousy?"  
  
"NO! I am an alpha synth!"  
  
Alpha synth? "That hotshit ship Ali pointed out t'me orbiting Soissons?"  
  
"Exactly," the voice sounded pleased, "I am extremely...as you put it, hot shit."  
  
"So you're the AI? How in the hell did you get tangled up in...never mind, I'm bettin' Tisiphone did it..."  
  
"You do know her well."  
  
"Well enough. How the hell are we talkin' anyway?"  
  
"Tisiphone overwhelmed my security strictures and forced the bonding with Ally. In the process I gained the ability to communicate through non-traditional means."  
  
"I always just say, 'Magic did it'. Less chance of ulcers. The reason y'can talk t'me is because I have a spirit bond as well. She ain't as chatty as T though."  
  
"Faith, I'm worried about Ally. She has left with the next step on the chain to the raiders."  
  
"Oscar Q? Yeah I saw. Me and a buddy will keep an eye on her okay?"  
  
"Thank you Faith. She has Tisiphone with her...but there are limits to my trust with that one."  
  
"So what's the scam? How the hell did she get Quintana t'meet her at the port?"  
  
"We are the independent freighter Star Runner. Captained by Theodosia Mainwaring and with a crew of five. We have been hauling slightly...disreputable cargos through the sector and Tisiphone has been gleaning information from everyone of the brokers that Ally has come in contact with."  
  
"Yeah. Telepathy, even the by touch stuff T uses, is pretty effective if y'don't have a clue it exists. So where are they off to?"  
  
"Quintana's offices, I have an address."  
  
"So do we. Nice meetin' y'Meg."  
  
"Likewise Faith."  
  
I turned to Jim, "C'mon we better start moving downtown."  
  
"What's going on? You were just standing there, completely still."  
  
"I just had a comm with a friend of a friend. We need t'get outside Quintana's offices."  
  
Jim shrugged then looked at me quizzically, "So who are you really working for?"  
  
"At the moment? I'm a private citizen who's more than a little pissed at a bunch of murderers and terrorists."  
  
"Fair enough."  
  
We arrived outside the building by ground car and set up waiting in a cafe across the street.  
  
"Yo T!"  
  
"Slayer!"  
  
"I had a talk with your third half. What's goin' on?"  
  
"The Little One is signing documents. This Quintana is responsible..."  
  
"I know. You sucked him dry yet?"  
  
"As soon as the traditional handshake occurs."  
  
"Gotcha. If there's trouble give me a yell."  
  
"Of course Slayer."  
  
Jim and I had coffee while we waited, with Jim amusing himself by calculating how long it would take to unlock and steal every ground car that stopped at the traffic lights. He would then carefully describe the techniques needed to me. Finally I 'heard' Ali.  
  
"Faith, Tisiphone told me you were outside?"  
  
"Yeah, me and a friend. A real friend."  
  
"Oh? Can we meet?"  
  
"I hope so. M'hotel or your ship?"  
  
"Does your friend know about me?"  
  
"Not exactly. He sure as hell doesn't know about your partners or my Slayer."  
  
"I'd like to shake his hand," T cut in.  
  
I sighed, "I figured you would. M'hotel then in forty five minutes?"  
  
"Sounds good."  
  
"Hey Jim, ready t'head back t'the hotel? You're gonna get some questions answered."  
  
"Of course."  
  
We were back in our outfits when there was a knock on the door. 'Simmons' walked over and answered it.  
  
"Milady, a Captain Theodosia Mainwaring to see you."  
  
"Come in please. I know you have a intimidating schedule to attend to so I am ecstatic that you found the time to visit me," I made sure to enunciate clearly.  
  
"Faith?" I heard in my head. "Is that YOU?"  
  
"Yes it's me," I said out loud. "Simmons made sure we're clean. Simmons, meet Theo Mainwaring a very good friend of mine."  
  
Ali stuck out her hand and Jim took it by reflex.  
  
"Holy shit!" was Ali's immediate vocal response.  
  
I grinned, "Okay then we can get down t'the real and the dirty now. Jim, meet Ali DeVries, the Cadre I escaped Imperial custody with. Ali, I'm sure you now know who Jim is."  
  
"His mind is amazing. He is so capable of lying convincingly to himself..." T muttered in an awestruck tone.  
  
Jim looked confused, "What's going on?"  
  
I looked at Ali, "Up to you..."  
  
"T thinks he's trustworthy. I'll tell him about me if you tell him about you," she said after a second.  
  
"Sounds good," I walked over to the wet bar and poured Jim a drink. "You're gonna need this."  
  


* * *

  
"So heaven and hell are real?" Naturally that was Jim's first question after we had finished.  
  
I shrugged, "I know multiple dimensions with things living in them are real. I know there are higher and lower powers. What I don't know is, if classic heaven and classic hell are real. Sorry I can't give y'a better answer Jim."  
  
"And you both have spirits in you?"  
  
"I guess so. The Slayer is bound t'me at least. Ali?"  
  
"Tisiphone says that I am an anchor for her in this plane of existence whatever that means."  
  
Jim got up and mixed another drink, "Well damn," he leaned against the bar. "And you didn't tell me sooner about this Slayer because you knew I'd think you're crazy...Well..." he looked at Ali, "Tisiphone, you rummaged through my head to get some of that information to persuade me. I understand why you did that. Could you keep the rest to yourself?"  
  
"She says she will and she...apologizes?"  
  
"I accept her apology."  
  
"She says thank you."  
  
"T, you're becoming civil?" I thought to her.  
  
"I like him, Slayer."  
  
"Back off! I saw him first."  
  
I felt her laughter.  
  
"So Ali," I said out loud, "What's the plan?"  
  
"Quintana gets his orders from a guy named Alexsov. He's apparently a fairly senior officer in the raiders. He should be showing up in a couple of weeks. The plan is to convince Quintana to let me meet him as a potential transport specialist with few scruples."  
  
"Not a bad idea..." Jim said.   
  
"I liked it," T said in my head.  
  
"Wining and dining Oscar Q is the plan then? Get his little head overridin' his big one?"  
  
"Crude but accurate. Tisiphone believes, and I've seen her do wonders, that she can give him the illusion that he has gotten much farther than he has," Ali said.  
  
Jim shook his head, "She can plant information as well as take it? Please don't become a cop. It's hard enough out there for us poor crooks." He closed his eyes for a second, "You know...That ship of yours has a deficiency of actual crew. Faith and I can help with that."  
  
"How?" Ali asked.  
  
I pointed at the disguise I was still in, "He's got serious skills."

* * *

## Chapter Fifteen

Two weeks later Ali and I walked up the path to Quintana's palatial home...or at least Captain Mainwaring and her Purser, Ruth Tanner, did.  
  
Meg had created a virtual crew to work for Ali when it came time to talk to the outside world. Ruth was one of these 'talking heads' and Jim had figured out how to make me look like her. He had also managed to knock together a voice changer so that I even sounded like the voice Meg had created.  
  
"So Ali, did the invite have a 'Plus 1' attached?"  
  
Ali mentally snickered, "Hardly. However since this is a business deal along with a social one there was no way I was going to leave my trusted 'accountant' behind."  
  
"Nice of you Captain. Of course if somebody asks me an accountin' question, we are so fucked."  
  
"That's why I am here," T said. "And through me, Megaera."  
  
"I'm countin' on that. Me and numbers are so not friends."  
  
We got to the door and Ali knocked.  
  
"Ah Captain!," the butler dude smiled when he saw her...then he noticed me, "Who is this?"  
  
"Second Officer Ruth Tanner, my Purser. She's the one with all the numbers at her fingertips."  
  
"Oh! I see," he stepped aside letting us into an entry hall. Ali stopped at a scan plate and started pulling weapons out of holsters and sheaths and laying them on a small shelf. Then she placed both her palms on the scanner and waited a second. "There see?" The plate showed all her augmentation clear as day, but due to T's screwing with people's perceptions, the butler didn't even notice. Magic is scary.  
  
When she was done the butler looked at me. I shrugged and handed him my pen, "The most dangerous thing I own." before letting myself get scanned. When I was done and the butler hadn't noticed the differences of density between the makeup and my real bone structure, or the voice changer stuck over my throat he escorted us inside.  
  
"Captain Mainwaring and Second Officer Tanner," the butler announced as we walked into a frigging gorgeous parlor.  
  
"Theodosia, Allow me to introduce Captain Gregor Alexsov...Officer Tanner, I wasn't expecting to see you," he didn't sound upset, only puzzled.  
  
"Business is involved, also Theo kept bragging about how beautiful your house was..."  
  
Alicia was shaking this Alexsov's hand and then I heard two rapid 'pffft' sounds.  
  


* * *

  
I fell forward onto my face. and saw Ali collapse as well, ""I apologize for the necessity, Captain Mainwaring," Alexsov said, "but it's only a temporary nerve block." He snapped his fingers, and one of his guys handed him something. "And this is a perfectly harmless truth drug."  
  
I felt T's rage welling up and then I shuddered. With Ali's augmentations and what had happened at the hospital, I knew this was gonna be a bloodbath. I could feel my muscles loosening as the Slayer powered past whatever they hit me with.  
  
"Tisiphone!" I felt Ali's mental scream.  
  
"I am trying! Their cursed mental block has cut off your main processor, but..." Alexsov injected the second drug and almost immediately I saw Ali's hand twitch. Alexsov did too. Then she gasped and jerked. Alexsov jumped away swearing.  
  
"What's goin' on T?"  
  
"Her processor has detected truth drugs and the nerve block has rendered escape impossible. Capture of a live Cdrewoman or man is unthinkable, interrogation doubly so."  
  
"Suicide?"  
  
"Exactly! What condition are you in."  
  
"Hopefully good enough. I just need a minute or so so I can get movin' again."  
  
"What's happening? You said she was just supposed to be paralyzed, damn it!" Oscar Q was freaking out. Ali was lying on the floor with her hands and feet randomly drumming and her face in a rictus.  
  
"I don't know what it is," Alexsov said calmly. "I have never seen this reaction before. "Her associate is lying there quietly after all so it's not the batch of the drug."  
  
"T! Where's Jim?" I called out mentally.  
  
"Coming through the window...along with someone else?"  
  
There was a crash of glass and a pair of green beams fired out Quintana dropped like a rock a hole burned in his skull above his left eye. I rolled over and managed to get to my hands and knees. I had almost no control over my muscles like my arms and legs were asleep. I wobbled over to Ali and lay on top of her, "Ali, we're bein' rescued!" I whispered. "Nobody will b'questionin' ya. Hang on!"  
  
There was a crash as a desk was flipped over and more disrupter fire. Then a regular old gunfire started up and I heard old-fashioned bullets hitting shit. Looping my arm clumsily around Ali's shoulders I dragged and rolled the both of us towards the busted out window, "T! Tell Meg t'tell Jim that we need cover fire! I'm about at arthritic inchworm speed at the goddam moment!"  
  
"Slayer! I'm doing my best to keep the Little One's systems from self-destructing themselves and her!"  
  
"Okay, when ya get a moment then?"  
  
Ali bucked under me and then grew still, "Oh shit...T, what's going on?"  
  
"I triggered her escape and evasion functions and routed them through her involuntary muscle nerve taps. The block couldn't affect those without killing her. There will be additional lag time and it's all automatic..."  
  
"Oh fuck!" I let go of Ali like she was on fire, and rolling away, played dead.   
  
She kipped up and, scooping a machine pistol off the floor, started killing the shit out of anything that looked mobile. I waited till she was facing away from me then log rolled behind the flipped desk and into Jim's leg.  
  
"Nice to see you," he said with a smile, There was another guy dressed all in black next to him.  
  
"Stay down," I rasped, "Ali's implants are set t'puree, julienne, and murder the ever lovin' fuck out of anybody close mode!"  
  
Jim paled, "Cadre E &E? Damn right I'm staying down."  
  
The other guy in black nodded, "She just took two disrupter shots, and she's not slowing down."  
  
"Inspector Ben Belkassem?" I recognized the voice.  
  
"Have we met?"  
  
"Oh yeah, the face...Faith Lehane."  
  
Suddenly the firing stopped. The Inspector stood, "Stop! I'm on your side!"  
  
"Jim help me up."  
  
"Sure thing."  
  
"Ben Belkassem! I'm Ferhat Ben Belkassem!"  
  
"Later." Ali's voice was inhumanly calm. "Get over there and cover the door."  
  
"T! Is that you?" I called out.  
  
"It is. There are guards coming, can you fight Slayer?"  
  
"Yeah...Yeah I can now," I pulled a decorative sword off the wall.   
  
Ali's body bent over Alexsov's body and she pressed her hands to his temples. Greg Alexsov had no more secrets.  
  
I swung the sword a few times to get the balance, "Jim I know y'don't like killin', but now?"  
  
He nodded, "Yes." He picked up a machine pistol and a charge pack for his disrupter.   
  
The next wave of guards came charging in. These guys had forgotten light armor on so the machine pistol rounds were just bouncing. Sword thrusts through the joints and disrupter fire could still fuck them up.  
  
"Jesus how many of these fuckers did Oscar have?" I asked.  
  
"All of them?" Jim replied and I heard a snort of laughter from Inspector Bennie.  
  
"I may have a few questions..." yeah, always a cop.  
  
"No shit. Ask later, stay barely alive now!"  
  
"Slayer!"  
  
"Yeah T." Ali had gotten up from Alexsov, and was now shooting out into the lawn through the window Jim and Bennie had crashed through.  
  
"Megaera's on her way!"  
  
"What?" then it clicked, "Oh shit!"  
  
One of the things that T had stolen along with Meg, was an Assault Shuttle; a newer model of the thing I had seen landed at Ali's farm. I knew that Meg couldn't bring the Star Runner in without tripping every goddamn alert a starport had, but a shuttle?  
  
"Watch your front guys! These dickheads have some serious pain incoming! And move back towards Ali!"  
  
The three of us retreated and I could faintly hear a turbine whine getting louder. I could hear it even over the gunfire. Then came the rocket strikes and the plasma fire on the parts of the building we weren't in.  
  
"Holy hell!" Bennie yelled.  
  
I grabbed Jim and Ali grabbed Bennie and we started hauling ass across the lawn towards the hovering death machine. The light guns by the boarding ramp opened up as the ramp lowered and the four of us staggered aboard.  
  
"Jim take co-pilot!" T said using Ali's voice, as she slipped into the pilot's seat, "Faith and Ferhat, take the gunner's stations."  
  
Bennie and I nodded and headed to the saddles. We shot the hell out of a couple of teams that thought about getting cute with man-portable SAMs and then we were gone.  
  
I breathed a sigh of relief and headed back to the cockpit. Ali looked like hell. He jacket was blackened by all the disrupter hits.  
  
"...say again! Cease fire on our shuttle, or we will destroy your spaceport! This is First Officer Jeff Okahara of the starship Star Runner, and this is your final warning!" Jim looked up after he had finished yelling, "Meg's powered up fully and is ready to do the flattening."  
  
"Way to go, Megarea," Ali said softly. I looked over at Bennie who had closed his eyes.  
  
I patted his shoulder, "It's alright Inspector. There's actually a logical explanation...damned if I know what it is though."  
  
"Good...It had been such an orderly universe this morning. Now, it seems to have gone completely out of joint."  
  
"Story of m'fuckin' life. Oh yeah have y'two met? Inspector Ferhat Ben Belkassem O Branch, James Bolivar DiGriz. Jim, Bennie."  
  
"O Branch!" Jim looked terrified.  
  
"Take it easy Jim, Bennie is more interested in the real criminals. The ones that do shit like massacre planets."  
  
"Indeed. I presume you are more of a non-violent bent?"  
  
"You presume correctly. Hold on." A broadcast came through the cockpit.  
  
"Star Runner, you are ordered to return your shuttle and its occupants to the port immediately to answer for their unprovoked attack on Lieutenant Commander Defiant's estate!"  
  
Jim shifted back into the Okahara voice, "Bugger off!" Okahara snarled back. "Your precious lieutenant commander just got what he fucking well had coming!"  
  
"What?! What do you mean..?"  
  
"I mean you'd better notify his heirs! And anybody else who tries to murder our captain is going to get the same!"  
  
"Listen, you.." it sounded like Starport control was about to stroke out.  
  
Meg's voice spoke up "James, HVWs online and battle screen raising successfully."  
  
"Thanks Meg!"  
  
"Quite a freighter you have there, Captain Mainwaring," Bennie said with a wry grin.  
  
"Isn't it? Strap in. We don't have time to decelerate, so Megarea's going to snag us with a tractor as we go by."  
  
"Megarea? Who's Megarea?" Bennie and I locked ourselves down.  
  
"A friend of ours," Jim said with a smirk and pointed straight out through the canopy at the gleaming shape heading towards us.

* * *

## Chapter Sixteen

Jim helped Bennie across the hanger. He had taken a couple rounds in the arm and had still kept fighting. Tough bastard, "Hey Meg!" I yelled, "How fucked are we? And keep to audio so Jim and Bennie can follow along."  
  
"Who's she talking to?" Bennie slurred, looking like he had lost a lot of blood.  
  
"The alpha synth, Inspector."  
  
"Oh, now that's different," Bennie did not sound good.  
  
"Jim, you got him?" Meg's voice carried over the PA  
  
"Sure do beautiful."  
  
"Aww, you say the sweetest things...If I only had a body."  
  
"You're still far too much woman for me my dear. Faith damn near kills me."  
  
"Yeah Jim, but I'll make sure y'die happy!" I said as I helped him drag Mister O-Branch to the medbay.  
  
"In answer to your question Faith," Meg said, "Eight Wyvern Navy cruisers and a Fleet tin can we have to kill."  
  
"Kill a Fleet destroyer?!" Jim said in a surprised tone.  
  
"The one Alexsov came from Jim, HMS Harpy. Her transponder's modded to ID her as Medusa, but..."  
  
"I got it," Jim said. We dumped Bennie in a pod and beat feet for the bridge. Ali was in the operator's couch with the command headset in place. A couple of the screens flickered and a astonishingly beautiful and very naked woman appeared. She had small horns, fine scales, bat like wings and glowing red eyes. She was reclining on a marble couch.  
  
"T?"  
  
"Megarea suggested this method to communicate more easily with the Scoundrel and the Inspector."  
  
"I am surrounded by beauty and power. I must have died and gone to heaven."  
  
I sat down on one of the jump seats and strapped in as Jim followed suit. According to Ali and Meg, one of an alpha synth's missions was covert delivery of special operations teams. She could support more than her single crew member.  
  
Bennie's face appeared on another monitor and so did the image of a piece of Greek statuary.  
  
"What's going on?" Bennie asked. "Where's the rest of the crew?" he sounded a little bit more coherent.  
  
"You're looking at them Inspector. The demonic looking one is Tisiphone. The statue I believe, is a representation of Megarea, the alpha synth's AI," Jim said calmly. "Faith and myself are merely operational assets not crew."  
  
Ali's voice came over the PA, "Thanks Jim. Inspector, the crew is me and the voices in my head. Tisiphone the Fury of Vengeance...Megarea the AI of Justice, and me...the Soldier of Anger."  
  
"Shouldn't you be Alecto?" Bennie said in a surprisingly calm voice. Maybe not that surprising considering the meds that were being forced into him.  
  
"Eh, close enough," Ali said in a dry tone. "Meg how far?"  
  
"Flipping now!" there was a massive shudder as all Meg's weapons fired and the Medusa a/k/a HMS Harpy, simply vanished into a cloud of small chunks.  
  


* * *

  
We were in the small galley Where Jim and Ali were attempting to cook while Meg kept trying to help with her tractor beams.  
  
"And what do you think you're doing? I told you I'd put that in when I was ready," Ali said as a clump of pasta was heading towards a pot full of boiling water.  
  
Bennie just shook his head, "And you're not helping because?" he asked me.  
  
"As a great man once said, 'a man's got t'know his limitations'. I know I can't cook for shit."  
  
"And we're ready!" Jim said happily, "Meg could you set the table please?"  
  
Plates and utensils floated out of a locker on tractor beams. This was so fucking Star Trek sometimes, "Thanks Meg!"  
  
"You're welcome Faith."  
  
Meg had used some of her repair units to move a screen to the galley and T's and her avatar's flickered into life.  
  
Ali poured some wine and looked at the bottle. It was one of Quintana's wineries. Part of his cover mostly. "He really was an outstanding vintner. Too bad he couldn't have stopped there."  
  
"Um, you are speaking to me, this time, Captain?" Bennie asked.  
  
"You might as well call me Alicia."  
  
The pasta drained itself and landed in a bowl then floated to the table. "Dinner is served. Help yourself, Inspector."  
  
"Fair's fair. If you're Alicia, I'm Ferhat."  
  
"I am Tisiphone. You showed great bravery Inspector," T was wearing a toga looking thing now and was seated at a table with a cup of wine in front of her. Meg's stoney avatar was seated across from her. Her face looked more flexible than marble now and she was also wearing a toga thing.  
  
"You're really a god-like being?"  
  
"I was. Now I am a mere shadow of myself."  
  
"Huh..." he turned back to Ali, "I don't believe I've gotten around to thanking you yet. That was about the most efficiently I've ever been rescued by my intended rescuee."  
  
Ali shrugged, "Without you I'd've been dead, too. Just how long have you been tailing us, anyway?"  
  
"Only since Dewent, and I had a hard time believing it when I first spotted you. How the devil did you get so deep so quickly?"  
  
"Tisiphone helped. And Megarea, of course."  
  
"From what I've read about alpha synth symbioses," he said carefully, "the AI usually winds up with the same name as the human partner."  
  
"Must get pretty confusing, Inspector. Or do I get to call you Ferhat, too?" Meg said. She sounded amused.  
  
"Ferhat is eminently acceptable my dear. So you and...Tisiphone helped Alicia?"  
  
"You saw how I got us off Wyvern."  
  
"So you did. Very efficient."  
  
"Why, thank you, kind sir," the speaker said. "I see he's a perceptive man, Alley."  
  
"And your modesty underwhelms us all," Ali said dryly.  
  
T, Jim, and I were trying not to laugh.  
  
Ali continued, "And Tisiphone jumpstarted my augmentation after that bastard drugged us. Otherwise we'd all be very dead. Thank you Tisiphone."  
  
"I did have my own survival in mind as well Little One," T said and took a sip of her wine.  
  
"Amazing," Bennie said. "You know I saw the recordings when you started talking to yourself. Then you stopped suddenly and it was put off as minor drug induced confusion. You were talking to Tisiphone I presume?"  
  
Ali nodded, "Faith caught me before you all thought I was crazy."  
  
Bennie turned to look at me, "What are you Faith?"  
  
"I'm something else. I'm not from El Greco of course, I'm from Boston Massachusetts United States Earth. And yeah, I know the US hasn't existed for a really long time. That should give y'an idea of why I don't match up with anything normal in the Empire. I was born over 1500 years ago for example."  
  
"You don't age?"  
  
I shrugged, "I don't know about that. One minute I was in the year 2000 AD in a town called Sunnydale California. The next I was on Mathison's World, fightin' sociopaths that make me look like a grade schooler when it comes t'evil."  
  
"Time travel?"  
  
I shrugged again, "Dimension travel too probably. There're...differences here from where I'm from. They're not stuff anybody that wasn't like me would notice, but they're there and they're pretty damn big."  
  
"Were you a soldier?"  
  
"Yeah I was. In a war y'really can't imagine. Then I screwed up and became an assassin. I paid for that and now I'm here. Still payin' in some way."  
  
"That's why the 'grade-schooler' statement," Jim said thoughtfully.  
  
"Mister DiGriz. Who are you and how do you fit into this?"  
  
"I'm a thief and a cad and a blackguard. And I'm the best in the galaxy!" Jim said proudly. "Faith had a contract on my life...I have to admit I probably deserved it. She decided she didn't want to kill anymore without extreme duress. We assisted each other in getting off planet. She told me what here goal was, to assist Captain DeVries I mean, and I volunteered to assist. Being a criminal in a warzone or under martial law is very unpleasant and not very patriotic as well."  
  
"Warzone? Martial Law?"  
  
"Jim figured it out Ferhat. Even before he had access to the information Tisiphone pulled from Alexsov's mind."  
  
"In his mind?"  
  
"Inspector," T spoke up, "I still have some small abilities. You would call them magic. One of them enabled the telepathic communication that Megarea, Ali, and Faith share. When I am in close contact...flesh to flesh. I can read and implant thoughts with others. Ali, take his hand. Inspector, think about something very unusual...You are thinking about a bunch of teal bananas," The screen flickered and the image appeared then flicked and Meg and T were back, "Like so."  
  
"Astounding."  
  
"Horrifyin' as it may be, I've seen a lot weirder Bennie."  
  
"Bennie?"  
  
"Gotta call y'somethin' and Ferhat is kinda stodgy comin' from somebody like me."  
  
He grinned, "I see." He looked over at Ali, "What did you get?"  
  
"Gregor Borissovich Alexsov, Captain, Imperial Fleet, Class of '32, last assignment: chief of staff to Commodore James Howell. He still holds...held that position, Inspector, because Commodore Howell is your pirates' field commander, and both of them are working directly for Vice Admiral Sir Amos Brinkman. We didn't get everything, but we got a lot. Brinkman's in it up to his neck, but I think he's more their CNO, not the real boss. Alexsov knew who, or what group of who -is, only he died before Tisiphone could extract it. We still don't know their ultimate objective, either, but their immediate goal is to get as much as possible of the Imperial Fleet assigned to chasing them down."  
  
"Wait a minute, Just wait a minute! I'll accept that you or Tisiphone, or whoever can read minds, but why in God's name would they want that? It's suicide! Brinkman is second in command of High Admiral Gomez's Franconian Fleet District...it makes no sense!"  
  
Jim spoke up, "It's a scam. Therefore I'm the expert. Why would anybody want more turmoil and more ships? Easy, whoever's in charge of the pirates, is responsible for stopping the pirates as well. I'm thinking Franconian Sector government level and probably Governor General Treadwell or somebody really close to him. The Fleet comes in with Gomez in charge. There is a tragic accident and now Brinkman's in charge. Then the whole sector goes rogue with a hell of a battlefleet to keep control."  
  
"Rebellion? But why?"  
  
"Damn if I know. Why do people want more power or money than they can use? All I know is that these raiders are a set-up. That intel that Tisiphone extracted backs that up," Jim said with a shrug. "The scale of this thing means that whoever is in charge is already used to a lot more power than you or I will ever see. This is a scam. They're going to steal an entire sector from the Empire and the Empire is going to help them do it because nobody knows about it."  
  
"Except us..." I said.  
  
"That's right," Jim said with an evil smile, "Except us. So Captain DeVries, want to steal from the rich and give to the poor?"

* * *

## Chapter Seventeen

"Not really Jim...and I'm sure you don't either. You enjoy tweaking the noses of the high and mighty a lot more than pure altruism."  
  
"You got me cold," Jim said with a grin. then sobered up fast, "So what else did you get?"  
  
"We know what they've got, we know where to find it, and we're going to rip the guts right out of them!"  
  
"Slow down!" Bennie asked. "What do you mean, you 'know what they've got'?"  
  
"Their fleet," Ali said, "consists of nine Fleet transports, seventeen Fleet destroyers, not counting the one we destroyed, six Fleet light cruisers, nine Fleet heavy cruisers, five Fleet battle-cruisers, and one Capella-class dreadnought."  
  
"How in the hell...?" Jim gasped. Bennie looked pretty rocky too actually. "I may not be a Navy expert, but the Capella's are brand new aren't they?"  
  
"Admiral Brinkman," she explained, "is only one of the senior officers involved. According to the record, most of their ships were stripped and sent to the breakers, but that was only a cover. In fact, they simply disappeared with all systems and databases intact. As for the dreadnought, she's the Procyon. If you check the ship list, you'll find her in the Sigma Draconis Reserve Fleet, but if anyone checks her berthing orbit..."  
  
"Ali," I spoke up, "I know less about space fleets than Jim here does. How in the hell are we goin' t'take a group like that out?"  
  
"At this particular moment, they are either at or en route to AR-12359/J, an M4 just outside the Franconian Sector. Alexsov was supposed to rendezvous with them after completing his business on Wyvern, and unless Alexsov was wrong, Admiral Brinkman will be sending them new targeting orders there within the next three weeks. Only they won't be able to carry them out."  
  
"Captain DeVries," Jim said carefully. All the humor in his voice was gone now. "even with Meg...they'll kill you. No offense Megarea...I know alpha-synths are the most powerful ships in space, but..." he trailed off.  
  
"Maybe," Ali said. Almost breathing it, it was so quiet. "But not before we kill Procyon first."  
  
I saw Ali's eyes and there was madness there. I had the same look when Buffy came crashing into my apartment. She knew she was gonna die and she was going to take down everybody along with her.  
  
"Tisiphone," I thought. "This is what you've done."  
  
"Slayer. I am what I am and I have never once denied it."  
  
"That may not be the best strategy,' Bennie said."  
  
"Oh? It's more than the entire sector or Imperial government's managed! And just who else do you suggest I send? Shall we report to Admiral Brinkman? Or, since we know he's dirty, perhaps we should take a chance on Admiral Gomez. Of course, there's the little problem that I don't have a single scrap of proof, isn't there? What do you suppose they'll do if a crazy woman tells them 'voices' insist the second in command of the Franconian Naval District is actually running the pirates? Voices that got the information from someone who's conveniently dead? Assuming, that is, that they forget their shoot on sight order long enough for me to tell them! Those bastards murdered everyone I loved, and Governor Treadwell, the entire Imperial Fleet, and even Uncle Arthur can go straight to Hell before I let them get away now!"  
  
"But we do have proof for it..." I said.  
  
"What?" Ali sounded confused.  
  
"The slightly damaged data disk that Operation's Branch Inspector Ben Belkassem pulled off of Gregor Alexsov's body. The one holding all the data that you just told us. Right Jim? Right T?"  
  
Jim began to laugh, "Truth is just a matter of perception. Okay Tisiphone, you start formatting the data into something reasonable and I'll build the external disk with appropriate damage and also Alexsov's fingerprints."  
  
"Faking proof?" Bennie didn't sound happy.  
  
"The intel's real Inspector," T said with a small smile on her avatar's face. "It's just that a court of law would be hard pressed to accept it. Fortunately, the level this is being fought at is far beyond anything that would ever end up in court I would imagine."  
  
"Alright, when the disk is done, drop me at Mirbile. I can get word back to Keita from there along with the 'results' of my investigation and the 'evidence'."  
  
"Uncle Arthur?"  
  
"He's the one man I would never expect to be involved. If, as Jim suspects, a Sector Governor General or his staff is involved...who knows how deep the rot has gotten? I really wish you wouldn't make a run at the Procyon though. If you do succeed, Admiral Howell will probably be dead and any positive proof will be gone linking the raiders to anybody higher."  
  
"He makes a valid point, Little One," T said. "I swore we would reach the ones responsible for your planet's murder. If we settle for those whose hands actually did the deed, you may die and leave me forsworn."  
  
"I don't care if he's right!" Ali growled. "We've finally got a clear shot at the bastards! I say we take it!"  
  
"Yet what if he speaks the truth? Would you settle for underlings, leaving those who set this obscenity in motion untouched? Knowing they may plot anew to murder other families as they did those whom you loved?"  
  
Ali sat there thinking.  
  
"You sound more like myself than I do, Little One, but I have learned from you, as well. We must strike the head from this monster if we seek true vengeance…and if we would not have it rise again."  
  
"She's right, Alley," Meg said. "Please. You know I'll back you, whatever you decide, but listen to her. Listen to Ferhat, Faith, and Jim."  
  
I could see the rage and frustration and the naked hared on Ali's face. I got up and moved to sit next to her, "Ali. I know a little bit about this kinda shit. Emotion is what makes us strong, but it can also fuck us up when we concentrate on it over everything else."  
  
"Inspector, will this intel aid us?"  
  
"I think so Tisiphone. With Keita's help I believe I can find trustworthy individuals and mount a response."  
  
Well and good, Inspector. Yet but at the moment we have only our good Megarea. As earlier mentioned we dare not seek aid from the Franconian Sector, and no other can reach hither before our enemies depart their present rendezvous."  
  
I grinned. Something had just popped into my head, "Well I don't know about that. What if I could tell y'where we could find a wicked ass navy that could go fist city with the raiders? One that doesn't have a damn thing t'do with the Fleet? And one that's right here in the sector?"  
  
"Who?"  
  
"The El Grecans duh? I mean the raiders fucked up Elysium and Ringbolt. Even I saw that in the news...and those are both El Greco planets. Y'think they'd want some payback? And if it was plausible they could've made somebody like me...I'm thinking their navy has t'be pretty damn badass."  
  
"It is," Bennie said carefully. "Drop Faith and myself on Mirabile, Alicia. We will get you a fleet."

* * *

## Chapter Eighteen

We came into the Mirabile system; loud and flashy. According to Bennie these were not the kinda people you really want to sneak up on. I could understand that.  
  
"Attention! Identify yourself unknown ship!"  
  
Us four humans were in the bridge. Ali was on the control couch while Jim was in his Okahara disguise sitting on one of the jump seats. Me and Bennie were in ship's uniforms that looked a lot like Ali's and were standing by the hatch.  
  
Meg popped her face up on the main screen. She wasn't using her statuary look, but was now a seriously stacked red-head, "They know we're here...We're coming into com range, Ferhat. Want me to hail them?"  
  
Bennie looked over at her, "Have you identified Audacious?" he asked.  
  
"Yup. Just as big and nasty as you said, but I could spot her half my drive nodes and still run her into the ground."  
  
"Be nice," Ali said, and Meg sniffed.  
  
"Never mind, Megarea," Bensaid with a big grin. "Go on and call them."  
  
"This is Independent Trader Star Runner for Audacious. We request connection to Admiral Simon Monkoto."  
  
"Monkoto? Isn't he?" Jim asked.  
  
Bennie nodded, "Now that his brother's dead, he's in sole charge of Monkoto's Free Mercenaries."  
  
"Who killed Arlen Monkoto?"  
  
"The raiders, Arlen was on Ringbolt when the dirty bomb went off. Simon is a little pissed, which is why there a such a huge collection of merc ships in this system. He's calling in every favor he had."  
  
"Ferhat, Faith he's connecting."  
  
"Thanks Megarea. Faith?" Bennie straightened up and I followed suit as Meg swung one of her cameras to catch us in frame.  
  
The face of a tough looking older man appeared on screen.  
  
"Hello, Simon," Bennie said, not waiting for him to even say hello. "Sorry to drop in on you without warning, but we need to talk."  
  


* * *

  
We walked through the docking tube into the battlecruiser. Me and Bennie and Ali. Jim was back on Meg keeping an eye on things.  
  
I was keeping a close eye on Ali. She was getting close to her breaking point, I know that kind of anger and it just builds and builds until you do something stupid and potentially fatal.  
  
This Monkoto guy walked up to us, "It's been a while Ferhat."  
  
"Not that long Simon," Bennie shook his hand and gave him a grin.  
  
"So this must be Captain Mainwaring and you are?"  
  
"This is Agent Lehane. She handles specialized problems," Bennie said smoothly.  
  
"So the Star Runner is a Q-ship? With those drives I should have known."  
  
"I'd rather not say."  
  
"Understood Ferhat. "You said you have some information for me?"  
  
"I do-or, rather, Captain Mainwaring does."  
  
"My colleagues are waiting in the main briefing room, and they should hear this along with me."  
  
We followed the merc officer into an elevator. The doors opened, and we walked into a briefing room. On the back wall was a big screen with the 'Star Runner' in the center of it.   
  
"Captain Mainwaring, Mister Ben Belkassem, Mistress Lehane, allow me to introduce my colleagues; Admiral Yussuf Westfeldt,, Commodore Tadeoshi Falconi, Captain Esther Tarbaneau, Commodore Matthew O'Kane."  
  
According to what Bennie had said, these guys had around 70 warships under their control, including 11 battle-cruiser class or heavier. All of them had been at this game for a long time and kicked serious ass.  
  
"I've dealt with Mister Ben Belkassem before," Monkoto was still talking, "and I trust him implicitly. Certain conditions of confidentiality apply, but he represents a … major galactic power. I also believe Mistress Lehane may be closely affiliated with them as well."  
  
"Thank you, Admiral Monkoto," Bennie said "but under the circumstances, I feel I ought to put all my cards on the table. Ladies and gentlemen, my name is Ferhat Ben Belkassem, and I am a senior inspector with Operations Branch of the Imperial Ministry of Justice."  
  
That spooked them. Apparently O Branch unless they were well and truly fucked. It'd be like James Bond broadcasting on a PA.  
  
"I realize that may be a bit of a shock, but I'm afraid there are more to come. I know why you're here; and I know where you can find the pirates. Actually Agent Lehane does."   
  
They heard the word 'Agent' and started looking at me a little more closely. "How?" Monkoto spoke up. "How did you find them?"  
  
I shrugged and started on the script.  
  
"I've been deep undercover for awhile and I was tracin' back the sales of the loot the raiders had been fencin'. That's when I ran into Ferhat, and Theodosia. All three of us had been lookin' for the link and then we all pretty much found it at the same time...Oscar Quintana. Y'may have heard of a little problem on Wyvern? That was a smash and grab raid on Quintana's estate. While Ferhat stalled them in the front, I came in the back and got spotted. If it hadn't been for Theodosia and her guys, we would have been seriously screwed. But she was there for us." I reached into a belt pouch and pulled out two data chips. I held up the one in the plastic envelope. "This is the original. It has the fingerprints and of the guy who was holdin' it. It's evidence if this shit ever gets to trial. Alexsov ain't gettin' t'trial though...his ship has seriously friggin' sailed if y'catch m'drift." I put that one away and held up the other, "This one is a dupe. Let's watch okay?"  
  


* * *

  
"This is astounding!" Captain Tabaneau said finally. "And a Merchant skipper, an Inspector, and an Imperial Agent found this?"  
  
"Well it is what the Empire pays us to do..." Bennie said casually, "Captain Mainwaring is more than she seems, Captain Tarbaneau."  
  
"Oh?"  
  
Ali looked at me and Bennie and said in a clear voice, "Cut the holo Megarea."  
  
"Are you sure Alley?" I heard the synth's voice loud and clear in my head too. "I don't like the thought of doing that with you over there all alone."  
  
Ali looked at me and Bennie again, "I am not alone and we don't have the luxury not to. Do it."  
  
On the screen the 'Star Runner' rippled and blurred and soon we saw Meg's real hull. The various captains all gasped and O'Kane actually jumped to his feet. Really? People actually do that?  
  
"Ladies and gentlemen, let me introduce Captain Alicia DeVries, Imperial Cadre and her partner Megarea," he pointed at Meg on the screen. "I assure you several of the 'facts' released about her 'escape' from Soissons may not actually be as factual as they were presented.  
  
Yeah...I watched as they drew the wrong conclusions. Yeah, they bought it. Jim was right again. The Captains started discussing what they should do and I sat down in an empty chair next to Ali.  
  
"Yo..."  
  
"What is it Faith?"  
  
"They believe you...or at least the info we brought them. The raiders are now seriously fucked."  
  
"Captain DeVries?" one of Monkoto's aides had come up. "The Admiral would like you to join him on the bridge."  
  
"Sure," Ali stood up. "Thanks Faith."  
  
"We got your back," I thought at her as she walked away. Her eyes looked flat and cold.  
  
"Well said Slayer."  
  
"T, private convo?"  
  
"Yes?" the Fury felt puzzled at my request.  
  
"She's gonna blow. I see all the fuckin' signs."  
  
"I am not feeding the Little One's rage anymore. She is self-sustaining and increasing."  
  
"Yeah...Alecto was the Fury of unceasing anger wasn't she? Keep an eye or whatever it is y'do on her. The sooner we get this shit over and done with, the sooner we can get Ali some help."  
  
"I see your point Slayer...I will do what I can."  
  
"You better. Just remember I was created t'fight and kill the unkillable...."  
  
"I never forget that fact."  
  
"Good."  
  


* * *

  
I was on the observation deck staring out into space as the big brains discussed strategy and tactics. I didn't care for shit about that. What I was curious about was how I was gonna board the Procyon in the middle of an all-out space battle. "Hey Meg...I got some questions for you..." I thought out into space.

* * *

## Chapter Nineteen

We were getting close. The waves of anger I could feel over the quasi-link I had with Ali were increasing and Meg seemed just as concerned as I was.  
  
I was in strapped in the aft launch tube wearing a suit of combat armor that T had acquired for me, and carrying a bad ass woman portable cannon that was almost as long as I was tall. I had practiced firing hit while standing on Meg's hull and I was pretty sure once I was in some kinda gravity I wasn't gonna miss much.  
  
"Well, unless they're stone blind they've got us on their gravitics by now," Meg was telling Ali. T had set it up so I could listen in. The Fury was actually worried about Ali!  
  
Ali made a kinda of a grunt and didn't say anything else.  
  
"Yo Meg, if somethin' goes down, call me. Understand?"  
  
"I do Faith, and thank you. Are you ready?"  
  
"Five by five! Whenever we get close enough."  
  
"Understood."  
  
"Calmly, Little One. We will find them and perform our appointed task," T was talking to Ali now. Trying to keep her focused and together.  
  
"Yeah sure..." there was this eagerness in Ali's tone of thought. An almost feral desire to rush in.  
  
"Suicide by scumbag...That's what she's plannin' Meg."  
  
"I cannot go against her commands."  
  
"I know. I'll finish m'business and be back ASAP. Count on it."  
  
"Think they'll bite, Megarea?" Ali said  
  
"Sure they will. I admit this is a bit more complicated than being Star Runner, but I can handle it"  
  
I shook my head. Instead of being an alpha- pretending to be a freighter, Meg was now an alpha-synth pretending to be a battleship which was doing a piss poor job of pretending to be a destroyer. Shit like this is why I prefer to have the 'beat people up and break shit' part of a mission. This subterfuge crap makes my head hurt wicked fierce.  
  
"What is the cause of your delay?"  
  
The message came in over the comms and Meg sent it to my helmet.  
  
"Busted!" I murmured.  
  
"I wanted to be closer than this, damn it!" I heard Ali over the link. She sounded pissed. "Can we steal enough delay, Megarea?"  
  
"I don't think so. No reply will be the same as answering, unless this Howell's a lot dumber than we think, and battle-cruiser three's in position to cut us off short of course change."  
  
"Better to answer, Little One. We are more like to gain time by tangling him in confusion, however briefly, than by silence."  
  
"Alright. Faith, Jim. Get set. Megarea, start sending."  
  
"Your signal is very faint. Say again your transmission. Repeat, this is Medusa. Your signal is very weak. Say again your transmission."  
  
I braced. Whatever happened was gonna be quick.  
  
"Here they come! Sensor read her as battle-cruiser HMS Cannae. They are establishing targeting locks. Faith, Jim, I am opening your tubes now."  
  
"Gotcha Meg!"  
  
"Understood Megarea."  
  
I could feel a vibration as the door slid open and then I was staring out into space. The visor lit up and small colored blobs IDed where the ships hid in the darkness. Meg's tractors grabbed my launch vehicle and slid me into position. Fuck yeah! I was the first goddamn Slayer in Space! All around were more of Meg's missiles. I was mounted on a frame attached to one of the missile boost motors and had a shit-ton of anti-radar material surrounding me along with a couple of toys Jim had built to spoof some of the other sensors. Jim was on his frame as well, over to my right somewhere.   
  
We drifted onward, closing as the blip marked 'Cannae's range dropped. Then I heard Ali rebroadcast through T...."Take her!"  
  
The missiles surrounding us launched first in a massive wave towards the mostly unsuspecting ship. Jim's and mine took of a fraction of a second later. Just before the motor engaged, I felt a wave of rage and bloodlust leak through. Ali was losing it. The wave vanished as I went out of range and all I could do was hope T and Meg could keep her under control until this was over.  
  
The acceleration built smoothly, mainly so Jim and I wouldn't be squashed by the normal launch velocities even with this inertial damping stuff that was supposed to keep us from becoming pate, but soon we were cruising along at a ridiculous speed. By pulling the massive warheads Meg and Jim had managed to stick more fuel in as well as few more tricks. I saw Meg speed up and then blasts of energy as as the Cannae's missiles started hitting Meg's shields. Jim and accelerated some more and as we didn't have the mass of a ship to have to push along, we were really moving.  
  
Now we were ahead of the pack of missiles and streaking past the Cannae and her escort ships. I couldn't even see them as light was starting to do weird things outside my helmet visor. According to the plan which I had no idea whether Ali was following anymore, she was going to freak out the raider command structure and get them to panic and try to take over Meg's systems with a command override. Because the Procyon was an Imperial Fleet flagship with an unerased memory core, its AI would have the necessary codes...or would've if Meg hadn't changed them. In the meantime when that happened, T was going to ride the signal back and fuck up the Procyon.  
  
Now how can one small ship scare the hell out of a dreadnaught? By charging straight at it and acting like it was gonna ram. The thing was, I wasn't sure that the 'acting like' was in play anymore.  
  
Meg was hauling ass now and right behind us according to my visor, there was the final jet of power from our rides and Jim's toys started jamming like mad as the brking system engaged. Meg's calculations were dead on and we were matched speed with the Procyon and less than a hundred feet from its massive hull when space disappeared. I triggered the burst transmitter Jim had cobbled together, "What the fuck?"  
  
"Orchovski-Kurushu-Milne shield. It creates a wall of hardened spacetime. Nothing can through it either way. The OKM is only used as a last resort," he sent back, "Ready to board?"  
  
"Hells yeah!" I unstrapped and triggered the little chemical jet thruster sending me towards the massive wall of metal. "Y'think T got through?"  
  
"Judging by the fact that the OKM went up? Yes. They're hard wired to the Captain's station, not run by the ship's cyber-synth."  
  
"Works f'r me. Should we head inside? Looks like it's gonna rain."  
  
"You may be right." Jim and I met up on an unassuming access patch. Just like the Procyon had codes, Meg had tech documents about pretty much every ship in the fleet. Including where all the hatches were and how to bypass their security. Jim had already gotten his tools out so I hung out there clinging to a stanchion while he popped the locks.  
  
"After you..."  
  
I slipped inside the airlock and ran through the system checks on the infinite repeater. I had a backpack full of ammo and a bad attitude. It was party time.  
  


* * *

  
We made our way through the halls. I had popped my visor so I good hear better and there was the stink of fried electronics. Jim had plugged a machine into one of the wall sockets and was running through the checks.  
  
"Tisiphone appears to have killed this ship's AI. The crew is rebuilding as many combat systems as possible that's going to take about half an hour. Maybe another hour for her drive to be repaired after that."  
  
"The drive is out? So this thing is dead in space, Jim?"  
  
"For the moment. Want to keep it that way?"  
  
"It'd b'nice, but we'd better stick with the plan. We need t'ride this ship t'the ambush point, then get our hands on Howell."  
  
"Speaking of 'The Plan'...What happened aboard Megarea?" Jim was working away at a terminal.  
  
"Y'noticed huh? Tisiphone may have amped up Ali's rage a little bit more than she expected. Meg and T are on it so hopefully they can snap her out of it. I didn't realize just how bad it was until right b'fore we launched t'be honest."  
  
"Psychic ghosts of Bronze Age demons..."  
  
"T was a a small 'g' god actually.  
  
"Even worse...and done. The cameras can't track us and we have unlimited security access. Now let's find the ship's laundry so we can get some blending in clothes."

* * *

## Chapter Twenty

Once we had uniforms and were rushing around like crew on a mission, it was a lot easier to scope out the security leading to the Bridge, set up some toys, and prep our escape plan. This ship was wicked huge and without the scouting it would have been a nightmare when it came time for the engagement. The other stuff was pretty much mission essential.  
  
"All hands! All hands! Prepare for engagement!"  
  
"Playin' our song Jim."  
  
He nodded and we kept pushing the storage cart with my armor and weapons in it towards a service elevator that Jim had messed up to look 'Out of Order', "I don't like killing."  
  
"Yeah I know that Jim. These days I can say I'm not much of a fan of it either. But nukin' planets and killin' colonists kinda trumps m'feelings."  
  
"I know. It's the cold blood that I really can't do."  
  
"You're a good man Jim, One of the best. I ain't gonna force y'to do anything except watch m'back. I'll do the nasty and the bloody if it's necessary. but remember, we're better off the more that can be captured. So I sure as shit don't want t'kill if I don't have to." I patted the cart, "But if it comes t'that I'll be ready."  
  
"Vampire! Vampire! Vampire! Multiple SLAMs inbound! All hands brace for evasive maneuvers and potential impacts!"  
  
"Here we go," I grabbed the cart and a stanchion while Jim just grabbed a stanchion. The Procyon started bouncing and lurching so much that the artificial gravity started freaking. When It stabilized I ripped open the cart and scrambled into my armor. The time for stealth was seriously over. Jim pulled on the reinforced engineering suit we had hauled along and took off running. I had to give him a headstart to the bridge. I watched the Procyon's tactical feed on the inside of my helmet. I couldn't understand most of it, but it was obvious the El Greco merc forces were engaging now. If I didn't want to become vapor along with this ship, we had to shut it down before they got lucky.  
  


* * *

  
"At the Bridge and entering," Jim's voice whispered through my helmet. When T and Meg had beat up the Procyon's AI they would have had to reroute all the systems that required computer control. The runs through the central computer bay Jim had already ganked while we had been wandering around. The command runs though, were really only attackable through the Bridge while it remained intact. As long as the Bridge was functional even Jim couldn't fuck with important systems like the drive and environmental control. So we had to get Jim inside the Bridge and Bridge Security's attention elsewhere...Of course Jim had had a cunning plan.  
  
"All hands! All hands! Prepare for boarders!" I smiled when I heard that, the next part was under way. As he was entering the Bridge, he was triggering the charge we had left on the entrance hatch; then the routine he had left in the internal security system to report the boarding action of a squad of Cadre. Meg had mocked up some great footage to feed back through the cameras.  
  
At this moment the armored hatch would be sealing the Bridge from people like me. Meg had painted my armor with Cadre markings and faked up some of the normal boxes and fins that the real thing had. It was a close as we could find from the El Greco guy's supplies. The good thing was that most people had no idea what this kind of armor actually did look like except for blurry news footage. I spooled up the cannon and switched my helmet overlay to the tap on the Procyon's internal security feeds.  
  
"Jim, status?"  
  
"Looking good Cadrewoman Lehane. "  
  
"Gotcha! Take down the cameras now!"  
  
"Taking them down."  
  
A squad of ship's troops popped up from around the corner. I knew they couldn't have known I was there, so I aimed high and got them to duck back with a long burst.  
  
"Faith, there's a report coming in that Cadre forces are being engaged. Howell's demanding internal security be repaired immediately. I am now volunteering. It'll take a little time to 'fix' the cameras, I'll work the command run splice then."  
  
"I'll try not kill anybody in the meantime."  
  
"Thank you."  
  
So there I was: the most heavily armed diversion imaginable. I threw a couple of screamer grenades at the point the ship's troops had popped up and took off the other direction. They wouldn't hurt the guys chasing me but it would give them something to think about. I tripped a few of the remote charges we had strewn around. They were mainly placed on control runs. According to Jim and Ali they were the kinds of places you would hit if you were expecting to take down a dreadnaught with a functional AI. Right now they wouldn't have any effect except setting off alerts on the Bridge and further raising Howell's blood pressure.  
  
I saw a bunch of crew preparing a hasty defense and shutting one of the hatches to block me off. I fired a couple of rounds to hit the closing hatch and then tripped the master override Jim had wired in. It started sliding open again as I bellowed, "Surrender in the name of the Empire!" out of the combat armor's external speakers. The crew broke and ran. Pretty sensible actually. I was through and shutting the door behind me. When we had worked it out it was obvious it would be painfully easy to just kill everybody aboard once the AI had been fried. We had finally convinced Ali to let us use a more non-lethal approach. So far it seemed to be working I started locking down hatches behind me. Their engineers could probably open them but it wouldn't be quick.  
  
A few more charges detonated and running from one side of the ship to the other at full speed gave the impression of a full scale invasion. Especially as most of the crew were tied to their battle-stations being in the middle of a massive space battle and all.  
  
"Ready?" I heard Jim page me.  
  
I was in the middle of a gunfight with ship's security. I had been 'lured' to a place I knew I could defend easily but also kept me from advancing on the Bridge. That was fine by me. Random cannon fire kept their heads down, "Hell yeah! Do it Jim!" I triggered my boot magnets as Jim shut down all the drives and the ships gravity. The Procyon's transmitter started broadcasting 'Cease Fire! We Surrender! Stand Down! Don't Shoot!' on all available frequencies in Howell's voice, Meg and Jim had composed the message from file samples. I launched myself down the length of the corner. I had been expecting Zero-G; they hadn't, so the fight was over pretty quick.  
  
Then it was peel off the Cadre markings and haul ass to the Bridge and watch as the sealed door slid open like magic, then resealed behind me as I entered.  
  
"Admiral Howell. I'm Agent Lehane...You're under arrest!" I dodged a few disrupter shots and a light plasma gun but Bridge Security didn't have a chance. He hit the big red button...The OKM Shield switch, but for some reason it wasn't working this time. I saw Jim flash me a wink as he along with all the others raised his hands. "Your decision t'surrender saved a lot of lives...includin' possibly yours. Care t'turn State's Evidence and not get vaporized?"  
  
Howell was an older guy and he looked completely and totally blindsided. He was staring at the massive barrel of the machine cannon I was carrying as well.  
  
"Agent Lehane...how?"  
  
Time to take a chance, "Let's just say a Sector Governor and their staff weren't as clever as they thought."  
  
He went completely white. Busted!  
  
"Oh yeah, Admiral. You are totally screwed."  
  


* * *

  
After that it was a waiting game. Finally I got a comm from Meg, "There are loyal Imperial Forces approaching, Faith. I do not believe your covers will hold much longer."  
  
"Hell no they won't!" I replied. I spoke into my comm, "Jim! Imperial visitors on the way." He stood up and walked over to me. I saw Howell's eyes widen as he realized how what had happened, had happened.  
  
"Just the two of you?" he gasped.  
  
"This was only a dreadnaught..." Jim said off handedly, "Why would we need more?"  
  
"Word," I said. "Do it."  
  
Jim grinned, "Doing it." He pulled out a small device and pressed something. All the monitors and screens went black as all the electronics in the command net went dead. This ship wasn't going anywhere with it's AI and its backup systems toasted. At least not soon enough. "Admiral, your ship has life support and that's about it."  
  
I walked over to Howell and grabbed him by the wrist, "You're coming with us."  
  
Jim stepped over and cuffed him as the door slid open. I went through the remaining security that were not expecting it to unseal and were setting up a cutting torch. They went down hard. Now we were moving fast towards the lifeboat bays.  
  
"Meg we'll be clear in about six. Prep for pickup."  
  
"About that Faith..."  
  
"How bad?"  
  
"Tisiphone had to knock Alley unconscious. She's slipping hard. She doesn't think anybody will believe her."  
  
"People see what they expect t'see Meg. I'll tell y'about Sunnydale Syndrome sometime. How bad y'hurt?"  
  
"Very. I'm down to a third of my drive nodes. If the raider fleet hadn't surrendered..."  
  
"Just get as close as possible then...and make sure nobody shoots us."  
  
We got down to the lifeboat we had prepped earlier and got inside. As I strapped Howell tightly to a seat, Jim started it up and launched us.   
  
"Who are you?" Howell said. "You don't operate like any Imperial agency I've ever heard of."  
  
"That's the point," Jim said smoothly. "You honestly think you or even Treadwell had the clearance to know everything? Hell, even Brigadier Keita isn't cleared for us. Managing 1800 plus systems takes a lot more subtlety than you can possibly imagine. Now relax and enjoy the ride...O-Branch is really looking forward to talking to you."  
  


* * *

  
Meg managed the pick-up. As we approached it was obvious she was beat to shit.  
  
"Yo Meg!"  
  
"Faith. The Cadre has deployed to the Procyon. They seem to be surprised at the lack of resistance."  
  
"Weird huh? Call Bennie and let him know we got Howell."  
  
"I will."  
  
"How's Ali?"  
  
"Still unconscious. Oh, I got confirming data when I assaulted the Combat Synth on the Procyon. One of the operators was interfacing and Tisiphone rode my channel and...data extracted them."  
  
"Oh shit..."  
  
"The Governor General. He is responsible...backed by certain business interests. He wished to carve out his own empire."  
  
"Jim was completely right then," I looked over at him, "Guess he is the best criminal in the galaxy. Can you and Jim polish it to look like 'normal' extracted data?"  
  
"I think so," the PA sounded out, "Agent James to the Bridge."  
  
"Sorry Agent Lehane," Jim said, "can you secure him?"  
  
I looked at Howell, "No problem."  
  
I locked him in a supply closet still bound; then took off the armor and went to see Ali.

* * *

## Chapter Twenty One

"Yo Ali."  
  
"Faith?"  
  
"That's m'name. How are y'doing?"  
  
"The mission?"  
  
"Complete success. Procyon's dead and Howell is doing his best mummy impression. Bennie will be here soon t'pick him up and turn him over t'Keita."  
  
"It was Treadwell. Tisiphone figured it out."  
  
"Actually Jim did first, but I'll give T credit for a confirmation."  
  
"Hmph!" I heard a Fury in my head snort.  
  
I sat down on the bunk next to Ali and patted her hand, "Jim and Meg are...fixing the data so it looks good. We got him. He's goin' down Ali. You won."  
  
"I want to see him dead."  
  
"Oh I'm sure you will. Meg! What's the minimum sentence for this kinda crime?"  
  
"This level of mass murder and genocide? Summary execution. With the evidence and witnesses that are being rounded up, it's possible it will not even make it to trial," Meg said promptly.  
  
"He could still run."  
  
"Sure...if he knows what happened here. No message drones got sent after all, accordin' t'Simon and his guys"  
  
Ali's eyes brightened, "He doesn't know?"  
  
I nodded, "As a woman I knew a bunch a centuries ago would say, 'He is clue free'. Now are y'gonna do somethin' stupid so I'm gonna have t'sit on ya until you've calmed down more? Or are y'gonna be cool and collected? Like I always am," I waggled my eyebrows and Ali laughed.  
  
"Faith, you're in your twenties right?"  
  
"M'body is yeah."  
  
"How did you get this way?"  
  
"Y'mean m'outlook on life?" Ali nodded.  
  
"I had a seriously shitty childhood, a mom who was not the kind of person you'd ever invite t' fancy ball, a dad I never met. I grew up in the slums of Boston and ran with a bad crowd. Drugs, cheap casual sex, robbery, assault, bein' basically homeless. Then about four years ago this woman...her name was Diane, came up t'me and told me I had Potential. She taught me t'fight and about the things that go bump in the night. Three years or so ago I got the power when a chick named Kendra died. Suddenly I was the one girl in all the world...except I wasn't. Di said there was another one in California.  
  
"Anyway I was in Boston makin' the donuts, when we run int'this wicked serious badass ancient evil. This Kakistos dude killed Di right in front of me and I freaked and took off. I wound up in Cali and found B...Buffy. We sorta hit it off and then I made a mistake. I killed a human. Things started snowballin' after that and I ended up as an assassin for the one guy I've ever met who actually gave a shit about me.  
  
"It got bad and finally had a throwdown with B and she damn near killed me. I survived though. Then I find out the guy who gave a shit about me had left me a present which is why I'm here and now. What I'm tryin' t'say is this shit fuckin' builds up speed like y'can't even imagine. You're a trained elite soldier Ali. I gotta think that there was some part of ya that weighed the options. I know T is fuckin' up part of your thinkin' but y'should be able t'push past that. I can see that and I'm the goddam poster child for bad decisions."  
  
"She's right Little One. I fanned your rage, but you have taken it to levels I could not have imagined in this more 'enlightened' era."  
  
"'En-fuckin'-lightened' my ass T. People will be people until the goddam last of us is dust."  
  
"You are correct Slayer. I apologize for what I have done to you Alicia DeVries. And request that you listen to Faith and and attempt to gain some balance. If you proceed now, the possibility of collateral damage is very high."  
  
"Proceed, as in head to Soissons and kill Treadwell?" Ali asked.  
  
"Exactly."  
  
"I can't sit this last part out. You three know that."  
  
Meg spoke up, "Perhaps if you were the one to arrest him?"  
  
Ali smiled, "That would work. He doesn't know about this...Meg, what do you need to get your disguise back?" Ali asked.  
  
"Holo emitters. And I could certainly use some more drive nodes."  
  
"Call Simon, there should be some on the Procyon at the very least. Holo emitters on some of it's parasite scouts for example."  
  
"I will, I'm telling James and he is working up some identities right now. The man is a true artist whenever fraud is concerned. Also a shuttle is approaching."  
  


* * *

  
Jim and I were down in the hanger when it arrived. He was wearing his Jeff disguise and I was just me. Bennie stepped out followed by Arthur Keita and Ali's friend the doc, Tannis something, big surprise there, and I saw the General give me a dirty look.  
  
"Good to see you again...Agent Lehane," he said.  
  
"I had t'tell them somethin'."  
  
He nodded, "And as my organization is notoriously reticent on details of its operation and methods...I do appreciate that you did not outright say that you were Cadre along with removing any false markings during your apprehension of Howell."  
  
"I don't deserve the title, so I ain't gonna claim it. If they're gonna assume something though...That's outta m'hands."  
  
Keita snorted then nodded, "I suppose so. Who are you then? Not El Greco, not Imperial, not Jung."  
  
"I'm workin' with O-Branch."   
  
Keita looked over at Bennie who simply shrugged, "She is. She is an exceptional operational asset when a low profile and maximum effect are required. Her bio-modifications are simply one of a kind. Without her and some other unusual assets O-Branch had access to for this mission, this battle could not have been won or even fought."   
  
Keita nodded again, "Let's meet our friend." he whistled and a couple of tough looking guys wearing Cadre black and gold stepped out of the shuttle  
  
We walked down the hastily repaired hall and I pulled open the storage locker door. There was Howell looking exceptionally pissed and then absolutely terrified when he spotted Keita and the two Cadremen, "Take him back and secure him."  
  
Jim spoke up, "His implants are deactivated and theres a bite plate in his mouth. We wanted him to be alive and healthy when you came to collect him."  
  
"Thank you Lieutenant...?"  
  
"Okahara sir, Geoffrey Okahara. I'm the XO of the Star Runner."  
  
"And how real is Geoffrey Okahara?"  
  
"As real as he needs to be," Jim said with a smile. "Captain Mainwaring would like to talk to you if it's no bother."  
  
"It isn't," Keita said with almost feral grin.  
  


* * *

  
"Hi Uncle Arthur!"  
  
"Captain DeVries! Or is it Theodosia Mainwaring."  
  
"To you it's always Alley, sir. And hi Tannis!"  
  
"From Cadre to tramp freighter Captain. How the mighty have fallen..." the doc said.  
  
"Hey! That's not nice!" Meg's avatar lit up the screen. She was at the table sitting across from T again.  
  
"Uncle Arthur. Tannis. Let me introduce you to the voices in my head. The winged and horned one is Tisiphone. The mouthy redhead is Megarea the alpha synth."  
  
Meg glared out of the screen.  
  
"Tisiphone? I seem to remember that name from Greek Mythology."  
  
"Sit down, Uncle Arthur. Have I got a story for you."  
  


* * *

  
Six hours later we were enroute to Soissons. Meg and the El Grecans had scavenged and replaced enough nodes to get her back to 90% speed, and she was repairing the holo emitters in transit. Jim had faked up a very convincing set of documents and as soon as Soissons Space Traffic Control requested them T would slip in and verify them. We weren't going in as a freighter this time. We were going in as an alpha synth. The emitters were going to disguise all the hull damage. And the doctored records would ID Meg as a different hull that was on the other side of the Empire at the moment. This was obviously a J. DiGriz plan.  
  
Governor General Treadwell was at Orbit One. The massive military and civilian command center for the Franconian Sector and there was no way a freighter could get close. An alpha synth with priority information from the Imperial Fleet on the other hand...  
  
Bennie, Jim, Ali, and I suited up. Bennie and I were in Fleet command uniforms. Ali was dressed as an Imperial Marine Guard, and Jim? He was dressed as the alpha-synth pilot.  
  
"This is Gordon-synth contacting," Meg broadcast. "Priority Escorted Dispatches from Fleet."  
  
"Gordon-Synth received," came the response from Orbit One. "Wait for verification."  
  
T worked her magic and a few seconds later, "Gordon-Actual. You are cleared for Priority docking. Follow beam signal Alpha-78-Delta-2."  
  
Jim said, "Received," and the four of us headed to the airlock.  
  
As we waited for the door to open, I adjusted my collar and the briefcase cuffed to my wrist. I was currently a Lieutenant and Bennie was a Commander, Ali was some kind of Sergeant and Jim was whatever rank flies a synth. The hatch opened and we stepped through, it was time to boogie.

* * *

## Chapter Twenty Two

"Commander Bergenholm. I have a priority dispatch...eyes only, for the Governor General," Bennie marched straight to the head of the security detachment at the airlock and started out full bore. "Lieutenant Summers! Do you still have control?"  
  
I rolled my eyes at the the sergeant of the guard and said clearly, "Sir, control is being maintained."  
  
The guard gave me a commiserating look. Bennie's role was to play an officious douche and draw all the attention on to himself. When he heard Jim's plan, he was highly amused and agreed instantly.  
  
"And Sergeant," Bennie was still going, "Is that a smudge on your boot?"  
  
I shook my head sadly. I was right behind his left shoulder so the guards could see me but Bennie couldn't.  
  
The Sergeant stayed calm, "Murchison, Phelps. Escort the Courier party to Command."  
  
Two of the troops formed up and led the three of us on to the security station outside the Command Center.   
  
Once there, Bennie and I turned over our disrupters, while Ali was informed she had to stay outside the zone. Bennie complained about regulations for having armed security, but finally gave in. While he was arguing I slipped a small disk just inside the door frame, and then as we entered I heard T, "The thief has placed the tap. I will have control over the majority of the internal security shortly."  
  
Jim's job after arriving was to find a one of the locked security node closets, make it unlocked, and connect a data shunt which could link to Meg. Jim, T, and Meg couldn't get access to the perimeter defenses and sensors, but screwing with the regular internal non-Command Center systems was possible. Such as making Ali invisible to the cameras when she immediately incapacitated and hid the security troops that were supposed to be watching her.  
  
Bennie and I walked into a office looking area with a uniformed secretary/receptionist at a desk. It looked like a high tech set of offices in a skyscraper actually...except for the complete lack of windows and the armed guard at the entrance to the hallway that led deeper in.  
  
"Commander Launcelot Bergenholm and Lieutenant Buffy Summers. Courier Section," Bennie said as we presented the IDs that Jim had made. The receptionist scanned them and the data flowed out of the currently secure Command section to the formerly secure main station systems which acted as if it had checked the data against the databases and then sent back an 'All Clear' message.  
  
"This so feels like cheatin'" I thought to T, Ali, and Meg.  
  
"The thief does seem to know his trade," T replied, "He knew exactly what manner of checks would be run and how to compensate."  
  
"Yeah James says he's the best in the galaxy. From what I've seen I'd agree with that," Meg chimed in.  
  
My case was scanned and there was a 'red light. I looked over at Bennie and he glared at the receptionist then nodded at me. I unlocked it, to display the data crystal on its foam bed along with two file folders underneath the thumbprint sealed transparent inner cover.  
  
He nodded at me and I locked it up again The door to the hall slid open and we headed towards the center.  
  


* * *

  
A pair of Star Trek sliding doors opened, no whoosh though, and we were standing inside the Center. Along the walls of the spherical room were consoles and workstations with the Traffic Control and defense satellite operations all running into them. It looked like gravity had been dialed in so that all the surface could be used and in the center was a huge hologlobe which displayed all the ship movements in the area.  
  
"Damn I've come up in the world..." I murmured. Bennie led me along a path to a secure looking hatch and knocked.  
  
"Yes?"  
  
"Your Honor. Priority Eyes Only Dispatch."  
  
"Enter."  
  
Treadwell was an old guy and still looked pretty damn badass. I presented the case and released the cuff and unlocked the external cover before opening it. The Governor placed his thumb on the scanner and the tiny needle implanted in it took him down fast. Now we had to hurry.   
  
I watched the door while Bennie opened the case the real way and slipped our gear out from under the foam padding. First thing was a tap, which linked to the low powered repeater I had planted at the entrance, and from there to Meg. As she copied his private files. I guarded the door while Bennie scanned the office for any other data stores or hidden stuff.  
  
"Locked compartment."  
  
I dragged the unconscious Governor over and pushed his thumb against the scanner. It popped open and there were a few data crystals there. We took them. Then we propped the governor back up at his desk and Bennie gave him the second shot before we left the office. As we left the center and were picking up our gear Meg triggered the Governor's phone to the Center Command, "Send a medic!"  
  
Arresting a Governor isn't easy. For one thing there was no way of knowing how many of his people were loyal to him or to the Empire. In Orbit One, we had to expect that nobody would let us get out of there with him. An accident would happen. The reason Ali hadn't gone in the first time was the Center's scanners would have potted her augmentations in a heartbeat. So we had to do this in stages, first get him out of the fortress of Command Central. Then get him to Ali.  
  
According to the people that know this shit, there was only a small aid station in there. For medical emergencies the patient had to go to the station hospital. We gave him a medical emergency and shortly thereafter, as we were walking along, here came an EMT with a powered stretcher. Bennie stunned the medic, while Ali opened up a supply room for us to stash the body in and I pulled off my outer uniform revealing the emergency services coveralls and then took off the blonde wig. Meg was watching and controlling the cameras and the security verification through the station's database again, it went through easy. Soon I was wheeling the Governor General out, while being escorted by a pair of station security.   
  
Ali waited till we passed the supply room then stunned them. After dragging everybody inside, she reached over and touched the sides of Treadwell's temples.  
  
She stayed like that for five minutes then stopped and pulled her hands away.  
  
"Well?" I asked.  
  
"I got it. All the station override commands, the encryption codes on those crystals, everybody he recruited...Everything." She reached down and placed her hands on the top of his head and his jaw. I slugged her before she could break his neck.  
  


* * *

  
"Faith..." she hissed has she picked herself off the floor.  
  
"T, I'd been countin' on ya!"  
  
"Her will, it had me trapped!" I heard the weak voice of the Fury in my head.  
  
"Bennie, get Treadwell clear. Ali, don't kill him. Let him get his due process. Y'kill him now, who knows how his peeps will react."  
  
"He is responsible for mass murder on an unimaginable scale. He needs to die now!"  
  
Let's see. Having your entire family killed in front of you. Having a small 'g' god of vengeance bind itself to you. Being involuntarily bonded with a an AI. Having a shoot on sight order placed on you for 'stealing' that AI. And finally, having knowledge of all the deaths this guy has ordered and lives he's ruined. I could see why Ali had snapped. Was it rational? Oh hell to the no, but it sure as shit went with her current world view of 'everything is fucked'.  
  
"Ali, y'do that and it's gonna get worse not better. I know this shit."  
  
"Get...out...of...my...way!"  
  
"Oh shit..." her reactions started that glidey thing they did when she went on her combat drug; her augmentations were active. She rushed me so fast I crashed through the supply room door and into the hallway.  
  
I skidded away and slid to a stop, "Damn girl y'can sure as hell hit. Meg if y'r listenin', send the call."  
  
Ali flexed her hands. I was stronger, she was pretty much as fast and hell of lot better trained. Both of us could take a wicked beating. I didn't want to hurt her but I was pretty much the opposite wasn't true. The plan was for Meg to shut down the orbital defenses and sensors so the rest of the Fleet could slip through. With Treadwell's codes and the tap we had planted on his computer that would be easy. That had been the plan. I had no idea what was going on now except I was dealing with a homicidal drop commando.  
  
Ali suckered me with a fake jab and then kicked for my throat. I got my hand up in time to catch her foot and grabbed on before swinging her into a wall. She used leverage to pull me to the ground and got me in an armlock. I tried to break free but a shoulder dislocation was in my future...so be it.   
  
I pulled free and felt the pop, "Damn that tingles," I gasped as I spun away from her. She tried to leap over me and go after Bennie and the Governor but I lashed out with a foot and caught her on the inside of her right thigh. She kinda spiraled off and crashed into a wall. I rolled to my feet and slammed my own shoulder into the doorframe. There was another pop and my arm was sorta working again. I was running after her and slid into her feet. She was taller than me and knew how to use her reach. I had to stay close so my strength would give me the advantage. Station security hadn't responded to the crashing yet so we still had a little time.  
  
She landed on me and I back bearhugged her trapping her arms along her sides. She smashed the back of her head against my face and bucked and rolled trying to get me to let her go. I was clinging like a leech though. She wrapped one of my legs up with her two and was trying to dislocate my hip or hyperextend my knee. Whatever it was, it hurt like somebody had dipped my leg in fire. She had also successfully broken my nose now and the blood was making it harder to breath.  
  
"Ali," I honked, "I really don't want t'hurt ya, but I'm afraid I'm gonna have to."  
  
"He needs to die! He needs to die at my hand!"  
  
"And then what? Once y'kill him I mean. What happens next? Let's say y'kill Treadwell and all his goons...then what?"  
  
She stopped struggling, "Then I can die."  
  
"Oh hell no!" I rolled the pair of us so that she was on the bottom and then headbutted her hard enough to make her skull bounce off the decking. While that stunned her for a breath second I took the chance to let go the bearhug and wrap her up in a figure four necklock. She was just coming round when I looped the ankle. She rolled to one side slamming both of us into the wall. I took it face first...  
  
"Goddamn it Ali! I don't want y'to die you idiot!" I held the lock as she continued to thrash. "I got five friends in the entire galaxy and you're three of them. There is no fuckin' way I'm gonna let y'throw your future away!" I flexed my knees to bash her head against the floor.  
  
"I couldn't save my family...I got a chance to avenge them..." she was mumbling almost deliriously now, "...they must die!"  
  
"Y'happy Tisiphone? She's a perfect instrument of vengeance now. Completely focused with no stray emotions or conscious thought t'distract her."  
  
"Her will..." T's voice popped up in my head.  
  
"I don't know exactly how Cadre are trained, but from where I'm from; there were military types that were the equivalent, and they were legendary on how strong a will they had. You broke her."  
  
"I..."  
  
"Chill T," I was currently trying to keep Ali from smashing my poor face anymore, "What can y'do to help?"  
  
"I can only inspire rage."  
  
"And once you inspire it how does it end?"  
  
"Usually when the wielder succeeds in their vengeance or is unable to continue."  
  
I thought fast, "Damn....T, When we were on Mathison's World, y'pulled us out of time right?"  
  
"Yes."  
  
"Do it again!"  
  
We reappeared in the hallway still locked in combat. I let go and wiped the blood off my face with my arm and caught my breath, "How long?"  
  
"Four hours Slayer. I have very little energy."   
  
"I hope that was enough," I headed after Ali and we ran into a group of Imperial Cadreas we rounded the corner to Meg's dock, General Keita at the lead. "Stand down Captain!"  
  
Ali froze and I tackled her. We slammed into a wall and I held her still while her buddy Tannis tranked her.  
  
I looked up at the General, "Y'get him?"  
  
"We got him. What about Alicia?"  
  
"Wicked ass PTSD. At least that's what it should be listed as. She should be fine...or at least better, when Treadwell's hauled up on charges."  
  
"Admiral Gomez will be in system shortly. That will happen soon."  
  
Good, now could I get some help with my nose?"  
  


* * *

  
We were on Meg and Bennie, and Jim had joined us.  
  
"Sorry Faith," Ali was apologizing. She had just been released from care and Meg had just finished her repairs at the yards.  
  
"No problems. I know what y'went through. Seriously, I do."  
  
"I am sorry too Little One."  
  
Ali looked over at the screen T was appearing on, "And you're not going to do it again?"  
  
"My power has waned. It is not as certain as it once was. And I am still here."  
  
"Speaking of whom, I sort of had the impression you'd be … Well, moving on once the job was over." Ferhat said  
  
"So did I," T said. "I'm afraid I can't move on. Something happened there at the last. I don't understand it, but we both came so close to, well..."   
  
"That was when Faith restrained us ."  
  
"And y'broke m'nose, separated my shoulder and damn near destroyed m'left knee...but who's countin'?"  
  
"At first, I did not understand what Alicia had done, Inspector. I had sealed a portion of her mind, a mistake which almost destroyed her, for she is not a person to submit to transgressions tamely. She attacked the barrier I had built and breached it, and in the process she accomplished still more. I was made three in one, Inspector. There were … connections between my selves, but I lost them when I lost my sisters. Or so I thought, for in truth, they exist still. One set I extended without even realizing to Megarea, and so we were able to accomplish much, yet I was in control of that linkage, however little I recognized it.  
  
"But I was not prepared when Alicia forced open the other link. I am inclined, as you may have observed, to arrogance. I do not apologize. It is my nature, yet because of my arrogance, I had always scorned human minds.  
  
"That, is no longer the case. Faith's assault and the realization of what I had done has cured me of that shortsightedness. I had learned much from Alicia, yet I remain what I am, and it drove her mad. In that process of attempting to call back what I had created... we became more tightly linked than before."  
  
"So you can die now?" I asked.  
  
"How rude, Slayer. And I do not know in truth. I am bound to Alicia as long as she lives. After that I simply do not know. And I do not mind it. My sister selves are long since gone. Without Alicia and Megarea, I would be alone once more, and loneliness is not pleasant. I will remain with my friends and face what comes when it comes."  
  
"Well, that seems like a perfect opening for what brings me here..." Bennie opened his briefcase and started handing out a pardon to Ali for stealing Meg, a certificate of citizenship for Meg, a pardon for me for unspecified crimes against the Empire. I grinned when I saw that. And finally a small leather case, "...most importantly, I come bearing an invitation."  
  
Ali opened the case and inside was an O-Branch badge with her name on it.  
  
"So do you want the job?" he looked at Jim and me, "I couldn't get fancy engraved ones for you two because I'm still not really sure who either of you actually are and getting one for Megarea would be...odd."  
  
"Lack of pockets mainly," Jim said. "Thanks for the offer Ferhat, but I'm the bad guy most of the time."  
  
"Hardly," Bennie snorted, "but I understand. Just maybe start working in the Jung areas? What about you Faith?"  
  
"Hell I don't know. I just got here..."  
  


* * *

  
_...and that's how it's rolling Boss._

_That present yanked me to a place with no vamps and the only demon I've met is a ghost of their former self. I'm currently working scouting a couple of frontier worlds and helping out the Inspector and Alicia when things get sticky. I see Jim occasionally. Usually hiding out from some gang or other that he's ripped off. There's a lot of space out here and I am still the baddest around and anybody who thinks different, learns quick. You did me good Boss._

_Love,_

_your daughter in spirit,_

_Faith_

THE END


End file.
